a second life
by Glaikit
Summary: Solangelo, slow burn. Starts with the three days in the infirmary and continues until a couple months before Trials of Apollo.
1. Chapter 1

This starts right at the end of _Blood of Olympus_ , using the dialogue between Will and Nico from chapter LVI. It starts as another 'three days in the infirmary' Solangelo fix that will continue up to _Trials of Apollo._ Slow burn, some angst in the middle, and I promise fluff.

August 4th

 **Will**

Will was startled awake, disoriented. He reminded himself that everything was fine, for now. It had been three days since the battle ended, but after the days of stress, watching more and more monsters join the Roman forces threatening his home, fighting in the battle that ended with so many of his friends injured, and then recruiting all of the healthy Apollo campers to help in the infirmary, he'd barely been able to sleep more than a couple hours at a time for the past week. He was exhausted, but still on edge, his body waiting for the next emergency. It didn't help that Will felt useless, more or less. He was never a great fighter, the best he could do was try and stop the bleeding once it all ended, literally. Of course he ran into Nico di Angelo, who had thought he was a joke, trying to do a scouting mission in all black without covering his hair … not that he really cared about what the son of Hades thought, but he had a good point. Will was out of his element on the battlefield. He figured he was lucky enough to make it out unharmed … and who else to thank for that but Nico himself, taking down six Romans when he could barely stand - barely stay solid enough to hold his sword, even.

Will's thoughts drifted to the battle in Manhattan, Nico showing up with his father and the army they raised - it was amazing. Will felt like every time he got a glimpse of Nico over the years, he was different - more brooding, yes, but also more powerful and more independent each time he appeared, gaining a sens realism and grit Will admired - he couldn't help but feel sheltered and cowardly in comparison.

He shook himself and decided to get up. He didn't have time to spend the morning wondering about the Hades kid, fascinated by the mystery and rumors that surrounded Nico di Angelo. There were still a handful of campers in the infirmary, and Kayla stayed with them overnight. He might as well grab some food and go relieve her.

He slid on his jeans and flip-flops and glanced out the cabin window - Nico was outside the Hades cabin with Jason, who suddenly hugged him as Nico cracked a grin. Will froze in surprise - he didn't think of Nico as the hugging type, especially someone who would be hugging the All American Poster Boy, Jason Grace. Will felt a tinge of jealousy that Nico was grinning and hugging Jason, when he hadn't spared Will a second glance since Octavian had … that. Maybe Nico was used to people dying suddenly, living outside of camp and going on quests and, well, the whole son-of-Hades thing, but Will needed to process something like that, talk through it, get some sort of closure … and besides that one Roman demigod, Nico was the only other one who was there with him to see Octavian's last moments. Those few minutes had been following Will - Octavian's face popping up in his mind whenever he had a some down time, Will's conflicted feelings about just letting Octavian destroy himself. With everything that happened after the explosion, the rest of the Seven and Nico charging toward Jason and Piper as they fell, Reyna calling her forces into ranks, the unorganized Greek demigods frozen as they stared at the place in the sky where Gaea had been - Will had found plenty of things to keep himself from thinking too long about the morality of what they did, or didn't do. But now, as the injured were being sent back to their cabins, the Romans settling in, and the satyrs, nymphs, and Demeter cabin smoothing the battlefield over to look like it had just a month ago, Will was starting to feel haunted by Octavian, his .. nephew, brother, cousin? He had to talk to someone about it, but couldn't bring himself to burden his siblings, and he didn't think he could quite explain it all to his friends. That just left Nico.

Before he realized what he was doing, Will stepped out of the cabin and caught Nico's attention. He locked eyes and pointed to Nico and at the Apollo cabin's porch. Nico paused in his response to Jason and walked over.

"So where were you?" Will demanded, his seriousness hiding his insecurity.

"What do you mean?" Nico asked.

"I've been stuck in the infirmary for, like, two days. You don't come by, you don't offer to help." Yeah, sure, I'm annoyed because we're short in the infirmary. Nothing to do with Nico, really. Will was an expert at bravado - if his dad taught him anything, it was that if you act confident about something, others usually go along with it. Surely, that wouldn't work with zombie-summoning-shadow-jumping-Nico, though, right?

"I… what? Why would you want a son of Hades in the same room with people you're trying to heal? Why would anyone want that?"

"You can't help out a friend? Maybe cut bandages? Bring me a soda or a snack? Or just a simple How's it going, Will? You don't think I could stand to see a friendly face?"

"What… my face?" Nico looked confused. Had Will pushed it too far? Nico had the Seven, and maybe more friends at Camp Jupiter … maybe he was thinking of going back? He adored Hazel, anyone could tell that much. But Will had committed to this strategy, might as well milk it for all it's worth. He'd give Apollo some extra bacon after breakfast if it worked.

"You're so dense. I hope you got over that nonsense about leaving Camp Half Blood." Will was really pushing it. He expected a skeleton to pop out any second, but that possibility gave him more of a spark of excitement than of fear. That wasn't a normal reaction, was it? He'd work that out later.

"I-yeah. I did. I mean, I'm staying."

"Good. So you may be dense, but you're not an idiot." Seriously? This is how I'm trying to befriend the guy?

"How can you even talk to me like that? Don't you know I can summon zombies and skeletons and -"

"Right now you couldn't summon a wishbone without melting into a puddle of darkness, I'd Angelo. I told you, no more Underworld-y stuff, doctor's orders. You owe me at least three days of rest in the infirmary. Starting now." See? Simple concern for a fellow camper, nothing to do with his sword fighting that looks more like dancing or that captivating something behind his brooding darkness. Nope.

"Three days? I-I suppose that would be okay." Will couldn't believe that worked. He expected Nico to put up more of a fight, try to make an excuse or quick escape.

"Good. Now-"

Percy Jackson was cheering at something Annabeth had told him. Both boys turned, losing the thread of their banter, and Nico looked like he was steeling himself for something.

"I'll be right back, promise on the Styx and everything," Nico said.

Will waited as Nico went over to the couple, who told him about some sort of exciting news from the look on their faces. Nico responded with something that made Percy pause and Annabeth grin. Will was about to grab the last couple things from his cabin before heading to the infirmary, expecting Nico to show up when he felt like it, but right then Nico turned toward him, looking genuinely happy - something Will wasn't sure he'd seen from Nico in years. Not that he'd been paying attention. Will grinned and tried to keep a cool demeanor at the thought of spending the rest of the week trying to figure Nico out. In a completely professional and medical way, of course.

 **Nico**

Nico walked into the infirmary behind Will. He expected the patients to shrink away or look at him nervously, but nobody really paid him much attention. Some of Will's siblings glanced up between wrapping bandages and handing out ambrosia to wave, and Will led him toward a back corner right next to a window.

"This'll be you. I'm hoping the sun will help counter some of the shadows you've been fading into, but I might need to pull Coach Hedge in for a consult if we don't get your fading under control in the next couple days. I'm guessing you didn't really bring extra sweatpants back from Rome, huh? Or is tropical print your new -"

"Not another word, Solace. I was hoping everyone was too focused on the whole Earth-waking-up-thing to notice that shirt. There wasn't really time to go shopping between Orion and the Amazons and the Redcoats."

Nico glared at him but knew he didn't muster his usual level of intimidation. Will just laughed, which made Nico blush and glance away. He wasn't used to people dismissing his glares so easily.

"Well it sounds like I have a lot to catch up on. But first change into these scrubs and a new shirt," Will said, as he grabbed some clothes out of a closet across from Nico's bed. "I don't think you'll want to sit around in those jeans and hoodie for the next three days. I'm going to let Kayla know she can get some sleep and I'll be right back to run through your vitals."

Nico unfolded the clothes as Will slid closed the curtains sectioning off his corner. He supposed the shirt he was currently wearing smelled more like a campfire than it should, and the jeans had seen better days. Most of few clothes he had were back in Hades at his dad's place. He'd need to find more - he didn't think Will would approve of shadow travel just to go pick up a few things from his old room anytime soon.

Once Nico changed he sat on the edge of the bed and took stock of what he'd be staring at for the next 72 hours. The infirmary was pretty homey for being set up like a hospital. It was in the back of the Big House, so the walls and floor had more of a living room feel. The curtains between beds weren't sterile white ether, but looked like they were made out of bedsheets campers had left behind - some were striped, others with patterns on them. One of the sides sectioning off Nico's corner had small yellow daisies. Nico supposed it was better than the Hades cabin for now. He had spent last night there with Hazel, but didn't like the thought of staying there alone just yet. It was too dark and too gloomy for everything he had just gone through. Something about the obsidian floor sent him flashes of the jar he almost died in, and the green firelight wasn't exactly comforting to wake up to after dreaming about Tartarus. He had set his skeletons at creating the cabin after the Battle of Manhattan, but left before the project was really finished. Whoever had taken it on after him sort of ran with the death and zombies theme. As nice as a cabin to himself would be, Nico wasn't looking forward to going back just yet.

Will interrupted his thoughts as he came back in holding a clipboard with a lab coat on and stethoscope around his neck. Nico couldn't help but think how incongruous Will's flip-flops were with the rest of his outfit. He supposed for a 15-year-old healer, Will looked official enough.

"So first, let's run down the list here. I'm trying to get better about keeping everyone's basic vitals - it's so interesting what differences there are between cabins. Apollo and Ares kids usually run a bit warm, and the Hypnos kids have crazy low blood pressure - no surprise there, right? I haven't had any Hades kids in here ... I mean, obviously … but … uh," Will trailed off and blushed, then coughed and seemed to get back on track. "So, basics: birthday, age, we'll get your blood pressure…" He looked up to see Nico's pained expression.

"Um, my birthday is May 16th but the whole stuck-in-a-magic-time-hotel thing … I'm either 14 or 80-something, so…" Nico trailed off, staring at the ground. Nico was still self-conscious about that. Not only was he the creepy son of Hades, but he couldn't relate to all the pop culture that most of the other campers loved. At this point he had figured out that Harry Potter looked sort of like him but with glasses and did magic and fought some of the monsters from their world, and there were card games and movies and video games about some other monsters that were definitely not real in their world but he thought might be Japanese, and he was sure he could never catch up on all of the shows and movies and games and books that had come out in the past 70 years … so he'd given up. But some campers, when they found out, would still try to quiz him and always acted amazed that he had survived without having whatever, and he just added that to the long list of why he didn't like talking to new people.

Will just nodded and wrote on his clipboard. "We'll go with 14, otherwise it'll throw off my spreadsheets," he said, smiling. He put his clipboard down and started, "So, blood pressure. Give me your arm and I'll -"

Will stopped mid sentence, staring at Nico's arms where Lycaon had clawed him and Reyna stitched up. Nico looked down and realized they were probably infected - his skin was red and swollen around the marks, standing out against his super-pale skin. Nico figured that he probably should've mentioned those. He'd half forgotten about them, so numb from everything that had happened since he was in New Rome last.

"Right, so... we were in Portugal and the Athena Parthenos on top of this building," Nico explained, "and Coach Hedge had to make a rope ladder so we could get to it but Lycaon, who was working for Orion, was attacking us with his wolves that could only be injured by silver, so only Reyna's dagger and Argentum - uh, one of her mechanical dogs, the silver one - could kill them, and there weren't many shadows so I sort of grabbed the ropes around the statue and jumped into Lycaon and killed him so we could travel through his shadow all at once but he sort of got me before I was close enough and … well, Reyna stitched me up when we landed on this cruise ship, but it was the middle of the ocean and we couldn't exactly ask for a full med kit without drawing attention so, yeah. They're ok, really."

Will just stared at Nico as he told his story, glancing down at the cuts every few seconds. "Yeah of course, just the first werewolf or whatever. And yeah, between Portugal and a cruise ship - there'd be no time to waste for sterilization when you've got a giant after you, I guess," Will joked awkwardly. Nico squirmed internally. He forgot that not everyone was like Reyna or Jason - they knew what it was like, what you had to deal with when you were desperate to stay alive and moving. Most campers - normal campers - probably thought they were magnets for trouble, too reckless to be safe anywhere.

Will cleared his throat and reached for some salve stored in the table next to Nico. "Werewolf scratches aren't known for healing well, but I guess it's better than a bite, right? I don't see any abscesses, but I still want to take these stitches out. At this point they'll just add to the scarring. Most deep cuts I can heal and you wouldn't even know they were there but I'm not sure about something from Lycaon," he said as he cleaned the area and applied numbing cream before starting to remove the stitches.

Nico watched him in silence, noticing how sure his hands were as he worked on the infected areas. In the spots that weren't numb, Nico also felt a deep warmth emanating from Will. Something that came with being the child of the sun god, he supposed. Nico was used to big, flashy powers - hanging around the other children of the big three could get competitive. What Will was doing, though, had a whole different skill to it. An attention to detail most demigods his age couldn't manage, and a precision that seemed natural. He also let himself really look at Will's face while the other boy was so focused on the sutures. Unless he was fighting or glaring daggers, Nico usually avoided looking directly at people. Watching Will, he was reminded of Apollo again. Nico could see the similarities in their hair - golden and messy in a stylish way - and the structure of their faces - straight nose, strong jaw, expressive eyes - but Will had a softness that Apollo lacked. Maybe it was his age, but Nico liked that Will's face wasn't quite as angular as Apollo's, his cheekbones not quite as sharp and mouth not quite as wide. Not that Nico had any opinions about anyone's mouth, especially not Will's. These were just objective observations, of course. Nico made himself look away before Will caught him staring.

Will glanced up when Nico turned his head. "Oh, sorry! Did I pull or something? Sometimes I get too wrapped up in this stuff, do you need more numbing cream? Want a break? I'm nearly finished.."

Nico shook his head, "I'm fine, really. Just … nothing. Keep working."

They went back to silence, Nico listening to Will's siblings asking the other patients questions about healing and rest and what they wanted for breakfast. Right on cue, Nico's stomach growled and he blushed.

Will glanced up again. "Right, I totally forgot about breakfast. I haven't eaten either, I'll let these air out a bit before wrapping them and I can go grab us something? What do you like?"

Nico paused - his appetite was slowly coming back since Persephone's pomegranates, but any actual cravings for food weren't there yet. "Uh, whatever. I've mostly been eating gas station food or healthy stuff from the Hunters so anything is fine."

"Two bagels with cream cheese, it is," and Will hopped up and left.

Nico went back to listening to the activity in the rest of the infirmary. It sounded like some Romans and Greeks had tried to show off to each other and gotten a couple children of Nike involved and it didn't end well - one of Will's siblings was trying to sort out who needed help first while the campers argued about who won.

Nico began to feel his exhaustion as the sun from the window bathed his covers in warmth and the sounds of the infirmary turned to white noise. He was about to drift off when Will returned with bagels, fruit, and some books.

"I expect you to catch up on sleep, but in the meantime I thought you might want to read or something? I grabbed books from my cabin… I'm not sure what you like best," and he sat them down on the table by the window. "I'm partial to sci-fi and fantasy, but you might have had enough of that in real-life so there are a couple history books and good old Agatha Christie novels - she was one of Apollo's favorite kids so we have about 20 different books of hers. Anyway, food," and he dumped the fruit out on Nico's bed and handed him a toasted bagel. "You look like you need some vitamins so eat some fruit too, doctor's orders."

"As long as there aren't pomegranates," Nico said, quietly.

"Yeah? Is that a Persephone thing? She's your step-mom, right?" Will asked, sitting down with his bagel.

Nico wasn't sure he wanted to go into it … but his advice to Hazel came back to him, 'Getting a second life is one thing. Making it a better life, that's the trick.' The words he said to Reyna echoed in his head too, about those that don't use their voice being as good as the ghosts in Asphodel. Since Nico was turning to shadow already, he figured he should try everything he could to keep from slipping away.

So, he told Will about Tartarus, or as much as he could. He wasn't exactly used to telling long stories, most of his time had been spent fighting and living on his own. He didn't go into great detail, but he got the main point across: Tartarus was worse than anyone could imagine, with so many layers of torment that Nico barely survived. Really, he would've been lost down there if Gaea's army hadn't decided he was more useful as bait than as a permanent resident at his father's palace. He ended, finally, with the jar and his death trance and the pomegranate seeds, his last hope before giving up completely. When he was finally free of the jar, the first few hours felt like a hallucination. He couldn't quite believe that he was back in sunlight after everything he had gone through. One final hallucination wouldn't've been the worst way to go.

But it had been real. And each day, somehow, he kept going, despite almost breaking in Tartarus, almost giving up on rescue from the jar, almost disappearing into the shadows. As he finished his story, he thought about how Hazel had been the main reason he kept getting up and being just alive and present at first, but he had grown to appreciate the other Seven in their own ways, he had learned something about coping from each of them.

He had been slowly peeling an orange as he spoke, having to send his nervous energy somewhere, staring at it as if the fruit itself had asked the question. Once he finished talking, he popped an orange slice into his mouth and looked up. Will was only halfway through his bagel, a piece forgotten in his hand, as he stared thoughtfully somewhere near Nico's feet. Nico couldn't read him - Was that too much? Did I ramble? Did he zone out? Does he think I'm crazy for how I described Tartarus? Maybe I still need work on my people skills. A simple "yeah, a step-mom thing" probably would've been fine. Tartarus wasn't exactly breakfast conversation, he supposed.

"You're amazing, Nico," Will said, finally looking up.

Nico was confused. "You heard all of that, right? I stupidly thought I could find the Doors of Death on my own, just wandering through the Underworld. Then, like a clumsy child, I fell into Tartarus and was captured by Gaea and used as bait to lure my friends into a trap. You got that part too, right? And on top of it all, while they were outsmarting huge spiders and fighting evil spirits and killing giants, I was just asleep in a jar eating pomegranate seeds waiting for them. Or did I tell some other story just now?" Nico's anxiety and anger with himself started to take hold and the bed frame started to frost over. Rather than answer, Will reached out and took some grapes, now icy and frozen, and ate a couple. Nico was distracted by how casual Will was about the whole thing - as if most of his patients would just freeze fruit for him now and then. The frost began to recede.

"The way it sounds to me," started Will, "you did what you felt needed to be done, and for selfless reasons. Yeah, your plan didn't really work out, but I don't think I've ever talked to any demigod who's gotten back and said, "Yep, that went perfectly, no surprises at all." Everything that just happened could've ended so much worse - like, none-of-us-alive worse. Honestly, I've always admired you for how you handle things."

"I - you - what?" Nico couldn't connect those dots.

Will laughed, exasperated. "Nico, look, you've never taken the easy way out and you're stronger for it. I remember when you showed up here, a kid. I had just gotten here too. You were here for barely two months before you set off on your own - that's crazy. Most demigods show up here after barely making it through some monster attack, and don't leave again until they've had years of training, and even then there are usually other demigods or a satyr with them. But you went out there by yourself and survived. More than that, you figured out your powers and learned how to fight and if even half of the rumors are true you held your own against all sorts of monsters." Nico was about to argue, but Will held up his hand for Nico to wait.

"And at eleven or something you show up at the Battle of the Labrynth and raise an army of dead that protects the rest of the camp and the effort sets you on fire or something … and then you take off on your own, again," Will adds, talking faster as he goes, building up his momentum. "I've heard kids about to age out brag about things half that impressive. And then apparently you were helping Percy on that whole Great Prophecy thing and got him the Curse of Achilles, probably not the first time you saved his life either, and then showed up at the Battle of Manhattan even stronger. And with your dad, and a whole army, and wearing that crazy armor and yelling at Kronos himself and - like, how did you even learn to fight like that?" Nico tries to cut in again, to correct him that No, it wasn't like all of that, I tricked Percy to get information from my dad, and had to make up for Midas, and.. But before he could cut in, Will continued with even energy.

"And then you come back to Camp for a couple weeks or whatever before leaving again. Seriously. What kid does all of that stuff, more than anyone ever asked of him, and then has the option of staying here behind protected borders with whatever food he wants, and a cabin to himself, and all the training gear he could imagine, and pretty fantastic healthcare options if you ask me, but still chooses to leave? I mean, you might have a self-destructive streak, but I think there's more to it. From all that and the story you told me, your decisions all come from some sense of duty, a strict moral compass that convinces you that if it needs to be done you might as well be the one doing it so nobody else needs to worry or something. You weren't one of the Seven in the prophecy, you didn't need to risk anything there. In fact, you've never waited for the Oracle or one of the Romans' stuffed animals or whatever they use to tell you to go do something. It's crazy. And brave. And selfless. Who wouldn't be impressed?"

Will stared at him, eyes blazing, and then seemed to realize that Nico had stopped arguing. He softened and looked out the window.

"And then, all the stuff you did in the past couple months, Tartarus and the jar and shadow traveling to the point of almost disappearing," Will continued, quietly. "I don't think many of us could've come out on the other side of that sane. But somehow you're still so modest … and normal."

Will sat back, and sighed, and pulled a small piece of his now-cold bagel off. Nico was trying to figure out how to respond - when Will put it all out like that, sure, it sounded great. But Nico knew all of the details in between, all of the times he ran away because he was angry or afraid or too proud, and did things because he wanted something out of it too, and Will couldn't understand all of that. That the past few years weren't about Nico being brave or selfless or whatever. Before he could say anything, Will spoke, almost to himself.

"I mean, just look at Octavian. My nephew or whatever. What did he have, what did he go through, that made him turn out like that? So delusional and power hungry? I can't believe we were related. And the worst part is, I was glad to see him go. I've been around death, it's always lingering with what I do, but I've never felt so satisfied seeing someone die. What kind of healer am I, that I thought good riddance. I mean, I tried to talk him out of it, it was sort of an automatic response, but part of me was so angry at him for being close to Apollo, being my relative but so terrible, and I felt no sadness with his death…" Will trailed off and suddenly looked back up at Nico.

"Sorry, I sort of got off on a tangent there," Will said, smiling sadly. "The Octavian thing has been bugging me. It's silly, we've been in a war and death happens and I don't know why his is sticking with me. Short story: you're stronger than you think you are."

Nico just nodded. He wasn't sure what to say to Will about Octavian, because he sort of felt the same way. "It probably doesn't help much, coming from me, Death Boy or whatever you called me, but I don't think you're wrong to feel like that about Octavian. It's like he got all of the worst parts of Apollo and twisted them even more. And uh, thanks. For the pep talk," Nico said with a hint of a blush.

Will cleared his throat. "Yeah, of course. Well, I guess I should wrap up those lacerations and get the rest of your admitting paperwork done. I promise I didn't make you come here so I could just ramble all day…"

"Yeah, no, it's fine. I don't mind," Nico said with a half smile.

Will cleared off the remaining fruit and finished his bagel in a couple bites while he went to wash up and get bandages. When he came back they sat in silence as he worked, Nico trying to come to terms with the way Will had described him, and thinking about Will's struggle with Octavian's death. Will was definitely more complex than Apollo, Nico decided. It was nice, in a way, to know that Nico hadn't been alone in his guilt about not feeling guilty about the augur. Will had him stand and took his blood pressure, height, and weight just through touch, quiet except for a quick and doctorly lecture about eating better. It seemed like Will had used up most of his words, and once Nico was back in his bed Will handed him the stack of books and gave him a sort of melancholy half smile before leaving Nico to his thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

August 5

 **Will**

Nico had been asleep for nearly 24 hours, which was fine and good according to Will. Nico needed it, and Will needed some time between him and his praise-Nico monologue yesterday. He couldn't believe he had rambled about Nico _to_ Nico for so long. Hopefully the other boy would wake up and barely remember due to exhaustion or something.

The infirmary was almost empty now. Nectar and ambrosia and rest had healed most of those wounded in the battle enough to move back into their cabins. The Romans left camp earlier that day. Hazel, Frank and Reyna had stopped by to say goodbye to Nico, but insisted they didn't want to wake him when they found him still sound asleep. Hazel left a note and Reyna just put her hand on Nico's shoulder. Will noticed that some color seemed to return to his cheeks from her touch.

"Thanks for taking such good care of him, Will. I know he'd never come in here on his own," Hazel said quietly, smiling warmly as Frank and Reyna gazed at Nico's bandaged arms.

"Oh, you know, just doing my duty as a healer. It's nothing," Will replied awkwardly.

"Well, regardless, I'm glad you'll be at Camp Half Blood year-round. He isn't too great at letting people help him, or reaching out in general. It'll make me worry about him less knowing that he'll have a friendly face. And that you aren't afraid to lock him up in here and make sure he rests when he needs it," she said, smiling at him.

Reyna turned her solemn eyes to Will. "Nico is a true friend of mine. I don't have many of those, but I do have the whole Twelfth Legion at my command. I expect you to keep him safe, Solace."

"I - what? Yeah, of course," Will stammered. He had only seen Reyna in battle and at the campfires, but Will knew she scared him more than any of Nico's skeletons would.

Frank laughed awkwardly behind her. "Uh, she's kidding. I mean, as fellow praetor I'll try to talk her out of sending an army after you or something." Will didn't find that too reassuring.

"Anyway," Hazel cut in, breaking some of the tension. "Say goodbye to Lou Ellen for me. Tell her that next time I see her I plan to have something mist-y to rival her pig bomb. And Chiron and I are already talking about a party for the two camps, so.. see you soon, I guess." And with that she gave Will a quick hug and the trio left.

Will checked Nico's vitals again - he had panicked night before when he reached to check his pulse and his hand passed right through Nico's wrist. He'd had to take it at his elbow, but it was a few minutes before Will's own hands had stopped shaking. With the sun shining through the window, though, Nico was back to being solid. Coach Hedge had said something about Gatorade and unicorn draught helping. He'd have to track him down on his lunch break and get the formula.

Just in case, Will pulled the curtains back from the window all the way before he finished tidying up the rest of the infirmary. He wasn't prepared for Reyna to send the legion just yet.

 **Nico**

Nico woke up to a bluish-grey sky - was it dawn or dusk? As he gazed out of the window constellations began to show and he figured he'd missed at least a couple meals. He glanced to the side table and saw a folded note from Hazel. He opened it, smiling. Her handwriting had the distinct tilt and uniform letters of decades past, when good penmanship was enforced and people wrote each other constantly. It was comforting. She hinted that she was planning some sort of Camp Half Blood trip to visit New Rome, and she promised to come see him before then, and to Iris message once a week, and that if he shadow traveled to see her any time soon she'd have some choice words for him. Reyna had left a p.s. with a simple "stay solid." Never one to waste words.

He put the note down and looked up, surprised to see Will asleep in a recliner that hadn't been there earlier. There was paperwork on the table next to him and a clipboard halfway off his lap. A pitcher holding something that looked suspiciously like one of Coach Hedge's mixtures was sitting on top of the pile of papers.

Nico looked down at his hands - they seemed solid, and he felt better than he had in weeks. But when he looked closer he could tell the tips of his fingers were a little too transparent, especially in his hand that wasn't sitting in moonlight from the window. He reached for the glass of water next to him and his hand passed right through. He took a deep breath and shook his hand a bit, and was able to pick up the glass on the second attempt.

"It was worse last night," Will said from the chair. He put the clipboard on the table and picked up the pitcher.

"Coach Hedge made this for you, it shouldn't hurt. Last night you were translucent past your wrists, so I found him this afternoon. It looks like the disintegration or transparency or whatever receded, though, so maybe rest helped or maybe it's just not as late as it was when I checked on you last night. I took the night shift to keep an eye on it."

"Uh, thanks," Nico said, as Will poured whatever the clear blue stuff in the pitcher was into his now-empty glass. "How long was I out? Hazel visited?"

"Yeah, she and Frank and Reyna came by before they left this afternoon. You've been asleep for about 34 hours," Will said, as he took his pulse and made a note in his paperwork. "I'm guessing you're hungry? We have some food stashed in here, nothing too fancy though. Some bananas and oranges, peanut butter, potato chips, Pop-Tarts..."

"Yeah, Pop-Tarts are fine. Thanks." Nico thought Will seemed subdued, but maybe he was just tired. He couldn't help but watch the blond as he went to grab food from the main desk. The curtains around his bed were pulled back most of the way - he must have been the only one left in the infirmary. Nico still felt confused by Will's insistence that Nico was strong and brave and all that. Maybe healers were trained to make people feel better emotionally too?

"You don't need to stay here, you know," Nico said. "I'm the one who promised three days in the infirmary, I'm sure you have things you want to do, friends to go see, your own bed you'd like to sleep in."

"What? No. I mean, I do have friends and a bed, but … I'd rather be here. Unless ... you'd rather I leave you alone?" Will looked unsure.

"No, it's nice ... having you here. I just don't want to take up all your time or something. I'm not like, bleeding out or whatever, so," Nico said as he opened the Pop-Tarts.

"Bleeding out isn't that big of a deal, trust me," Will said, cracking a grin. "Actually, I need to take a look at your arms - I didn't want to mess with them and wake you up. I'll show you a cool Apollo trick. It's no shadow travel or zombie army, but not all of us can be the Ghost King."

Nico rolled his eyes at the nickname, but stuffed a piece of the Pop-Tart in his mouth and held out his arms. Will laughed and started unwrapping the bandages. The cuts already looked better - not tinged with red anymore - but they still had a rough look to them. Will held his hand right over one of the smaller cuts - Nico hadn't noticed how long and graceful his fingers were - and started quietly chanting. A soft glow came from Will's hand and Nico felt a dry warmth flood through him. When Will took his hand away there was just a faint line left.

"Darn, you can still see it," Will said, leaning closer. His breath tickled Nico's skin and he felt his pulse jump. "Usually I can get it so there's no scarring, but these are a bit more than the standard sword wound."

"No, that was - that was really cool," Nico said, ignoring the butterflies that had woken back up in his stomach. "Do you do that a lot?"

"Yeah, I usually do it right away but I wanted to make sure the infection was out of there first," Will said, as he moved his hand over the next one. "The craziest one I did was after that wild chariot race a year or two back, and some poor girl had been hit with a flying piece of metal. She was lucky it didn't take her head clean off, but it did slice right through her ear. Her friends dragged her in, half carrying her while she was hyperventilating and sobbing something about never wearing earrings again, and someone handed me her ear and I sort of taped it in place and chanted and it was as good as new. She was still covered in blood and looked ghastly but just looked in a mirror and stopped crying and walked right back out with her friends like nothing happened," Will said, grinning.

He did the chant over the next few cuts, and like the first one just a thin line of scar tissue was left.

"Do all of your siblings do this?" Nico asked. "I haven't seen anything like it at Camp Jupiter. They have all sorts of creams and herbs and stuff to speed healing, but it still takes a day or two."

"Right now I'm the only one in the cabin who can. Kayla has some other healing skills, but most of my siblings have archery or music or something. I'm terrible at the rest of it, but at least I have this and that whistle and some prophetic dreams and can do some other small things like poetry curses and making people get the flu. Who knows, maybe one day I'll pick up a mandolin and will suddenly be able to play, but for right now this is it," Will shrugged and moved to Nico's other arm.

Nico watched as he healed the other cuts, and by the time he was done Nico had gotten used to Will's touch and had gotten the butterflies under control. Will's hand lingered over Nico's arm when he finished, and then he gently ran his fingers over the faint scars. Nico suppressed a shiver. Will's hand moved to Nico's.

"Your fading looks a bit better," he said as he turned and squeezed Nico's fingers. "Maybe getting those cuts healed helped - gave your body some extra energy to, you know, stay solid," Will laughed. "I still want you to try to finish that pitcher before you go to sleep again, though."

"Ugh."

Will laughed again. Nico felt a bit lighter from the sound. Maybe it was another Apollo thing. "Oh yeah, when Reyna was in earlier it looked like she sort of healed you too? Your color came back a bit from her just touching you. Who is she a daughter of?"

"Oh, uh, Bellona, Roman war goddess," Nico said. Will probably liked Reyna or something - nobody could deny that she was beautiful and strong and intelligent, and the whole Praetor thing was pretty impressive. Nico's stomach sank a bit just the same.

"Ha, that explains it. She's terrifying. No offense, but I'd take your walking dead stuff over her anger any day."

Nico felt a flash of relief. As much as he wanted Reyna to be happy, he wasn't sure if he could stomach her with Will. Just because ... he and Will were friends, probably, and it was new … that's all. "She isn't that scary. She just has a lot on her plate - a lot of people she has to be strong for. I don't envy her job, but she's great at leading the legion. I'm lucky to know her."

"Yeah, that and she basically threatened me with the Roman army if I let something happen to you," Will smiled, but Nico thought he looked a bit nervous.

"She- she what? Why?"

"Well, they all seem to think that you don't exactly take very good care of yourself. Not sure where they might have gotten that idea from..." Will said, glancing up and grinning, "but both she and Hazel decided that I need to make sure you take advantage of our state-of-the-art healing facility here when you need it."

Nico scoffed and glared at his feet. "I take care of myself. You didn't tell them the same hero-story you made up about me the other day, how I went out in the world and got all amazing and stuff?"

Will blushed and turned away to throw out the old bandages. "Uh, no, I try to limit my unsolicited rants to just one a week, so…"

Nico lost his train of thought when he noticed Will's blush. The other boy seemed to switch between overconfident and unsure a few times each conversation. Nico backed down.

"Well … I guess I can finish Coach Hedge's drink so you can tell Reyna that you tried your best," Nico said as he picked up his glass.

Will smiled at him. Not one of his casual grins or playful smiles, but something … softer. Nico tried to drown the butterflies with the rest of the blue concoction.

"Thanks, I appreciate it. Maybe when your strength is back up you can help me out with my sword fighting - just in case."

Nico nodded and tried not to blush. He looked around the room and scrambled to think of something to say before an awkward silence settled in or Will decided to do work around the infirmary or something…

"Uh, so Hazel wrote something about a Camp Jupiter trip? Did she mention anything to you when she was here?"

"Nope - just that she was working on something. That would be cool, though," Will said as he sat back in his recliner. "Is Camp Jupiter like this one? But, just with California palm trees or something?"

"Not at all," and Nico started to describe New Rome - the way the legion was structured, their war games, and all of the people living in the city. Will seemed excited to visit the New Rome hospital and to find out that there was a university. Nico hadn't really paid much attention to that - planning for the future wasn't something he was used to - but Will started explaining all of the training that went into becoming a doctor and wondering if there was a med program and if they had classes about treating monster attack wounds.

Nico couldn't help but smile at Will's enthusiasm. He had stopped understanding most of what Will was talking about once the blond had started going into detail about some infectious disease class he sat in on at a community college near where he grew up, and instead Nico noticed the way Will talked with his hands when he was excited and how his eyes seemed to turn more blue and maybe the room even got brighter. Nico eventually yawned in the middle of Will telling him about the similarities and differences between treating a hellhound bite and a regular dog bite.

"Oh my gods, I'm sorry," Will said, blushing a little. "You're probably so bored, I just nerded out so hard. Right, it's super late, you should be sleeping. I know I said I didn't make you come in here so I could talk at you forever, I wasn't lying. I just never thought there might be somewhere I could study to be a doctor for demigods and not just mortals."

"I think it's great," Nico said. "When we go to New Rome I'm sure I could ask Reyna to get us - er, you - a tour of the place."

"Cool, yeah, totally, we should do that," Will said, looking around the room. "Well, I'll stop bugging you and go finish this paperwork over at the desk. Try and get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

Will stood and turned off the light in Nico's half of the infirmary. Nico could still see the main desk Will sat at, reading through the stack of papers and signing off at the bottom or making some extra notes.

Nico was a bit tired, but felt like his mind wouldn't be able to shut down. It was sort of crazy that a couple weeks ago, the most he knew about Will Solace was that he was the camp's best combat medic. Now, Nico thought they were probably friends - was this how you became friends with someone without having to fight monsters next to them? Before he found out he was a demigod he had spent most of his childhood with his sister, playing video games at the Lotus Hotel, or obsessed with Mythomagic. Not really activities that made it easy to get to know other kids.

He was mostly surprised that Will seemed to be making an effort to talk to Nico. He was used to most people giving him a wide berth, but his creepy appearance and underworld powers and intimidating father didn't seem to bother Will. Nico wasn't complaining, though. Soon the rest of the Seven would leave camp and the thought of hanging out with Will … even if it was just sometimes helping him with sword fighting or something … made the next few months seem a lot more promising.


	3. Chapter 3

August 6

 **Will**

He was heading out of the mess hall when Jason Grace caught up to him.

"Hey, Solace! I hear Nico is in the infirmary, right?"

"Yeah, he has another day of rest, doctor's orders," Will smiled. "I'm just grabbing him some food."

"Oh, good. Yeah I guess he didn't really eat well the past few weeks… Hey, is it ok if me and Piper and Percy and Annabeth come visit? Classes are starting back up tomorrow so we thought we'd come bug him while we had the time." Jason looked at Will hopefully. Will still couldn't quite understand how he and Nico were friends, but Jason seemed nice enough.

"Definitely. He's the only one in there so he'll probably be glad for the company."

"Great." Jason turned toward where Percy, Piper, and Annabeth were sitting under a nearby tree. "Hey guys! Will says we can see Nico!"

The other three hopped up and together they all headed toward the infirmary. Percy and Annabeth were half-arguing-half-flirting about some monster they fought when Will pulled the dividing curtains back from Nico's bed.

"Hey, look who I found," Will said as he sat Nico's food next to him.

The four visitors started talking all at once, telling Nico how much healthier he looked already and asking about the scars and talking about training, and Nico immediately looked overwhelmed. Will smiled and slid the curtains closed again and headed back to the medicine closet.

Kayla was still working on the shelf she had been organizing before Will left for the mess hall. "This is nonsense. How did all of this get so screwed up?"

"Well, we did have that whole battle thing," Will said, rolling his eyes. "I don't think some of the younger healers really know where anything goes yet either."

"Obviously," Kayla said as she grabbed the inventory list and rewrote one of her counts. The two of them had decided to tackle the closet now that things had calmed down. Will wanted to make sure everything was organized and restocked before the next capture the flag game.

The sound of laughter flooded through the doorway.

"So that di Angelo kid, huh? What do you make of him?" Kayla asked as she counted out a pile of small pill bottles.

Will was quiet for a few moments. "He's… fine," Will said, picking up the inventory list.

Kayla chuckled. "Yeah, that's why you've basically been living here the past couple days? Because the company is just 'fine'? Come on, Will."

"Ok, yeah... he's really interesting, and nice, and I had to make sure those Lycaon cuts healed ok and that he didn't, you know, disappear," Will said, defensively.

"Oh, right, of course. All very professional. Probably nothing to do with the fact that he's _totally_ your type and basically saved the world a couple times," she said, turning to stare right at Will.

He glanced up, blushing. "Kayla, come on. First of all, I don't have a _type_ , and second, it's not like anything would happen. I don't think we _play for the same team_ , you know? We're just sort of friends, I guess."

"You must be joking. You don't have a type? Really? So, that kid from the Hecate cabin you wouldn't stop talking about last summer and after him you thought that jerk Ellis from the Aries cabin was the most amazing thing ever and we can't forget your ex-"

Will cut her off. "Kayla. Do you have a point?"

He tried not to think about his ex, Matteo. Stupid son of Aphrodite and that stupid rite of passage thing they used to do and stupid Will for falling for it.

Kayla cleared her throat and brought Will back from dreaming up awful diseases he'd like to send Matteo's way. "Yes, Will, I do. My point is that you seem to notice the mysterious brunettes a bit more than, you know, anyone else at all. Also, I'd bet good money that Nico _does_ swing that way. I don't know him at all, and maybe his whole goth-y vibe is throwing me off, but the way he used to look at Percy Jackson…"

Will rolled his eyes. "Kayla, when Percy got back from his first quest, _everyone_ looked at him that way." Will sighed. "I just … after Matteo and all of that, I think I'd just rather _not_ , you know? Like, I'm fine just doing the infirmary and hanging out with you and Lou Ellen and Cecil. It isn't really like dating someone here is all that exciting. I mean, what would a romantic meal even look like? Eating a few feet away from the rest of the kids at the table? Sitting and watching the glow of the lava on the climbing wall?"

"Come on, you weren't always like that. Besides, I can tell you about _many_ ways you can have a good time on a date without leaving camp if you want me to…" she said, wiggling her eyebrows and poking Will in the ribs.

"What? No, please, I believe you!" Will laughed, backing up as much as he could within the confines of the supply closet. "I don't want to hear about whatever it is you're doing or whoever it is you're doing it with. I'll be scarred for life."

Kayla laughed. "Well, when the time will come when you'll want to visit the supply closet for more than some fresh bandages I'll have you know that-" Will promptly threw a roll of gauze at her head before she could say anything else.

 **Nico**

He woke up hyperventilating and disoriented. It took him a few seconds to remember that he was safe in the infirmary at Camp Half Blood. It was sunny - late afternoon based on the view from the window. But he couldn't shake the acrid smell of Tartarus or the burning in his throat from the Phlegethon that lingered from his nightmare. It didn't seem like a significant dream, just a run-of-the-mill terrifying mix of memories.

Will stuck his head around the curtain. "You ok? I thought I heard something…" he trailed off, taking in Nico's heavy breathing and fingers, white from gripping the sheets.

"Hey… hey, it's fine," Will said in a soothing tone, slowly sitting down on the edge of Nico's bed. He didn't get too close, which Nico was grateful for as he tried to force down his panic. "You know what? Maybe you want to get out of this bed for a while - we can go take a walk or something?"

Nico appreciated that Will didn't try to pry. He preferred pretending that he was totally fine, that he wasn't afraid of the type darkness that could only be found in Tartarus. He nodded.

"Great," Will said, standing up. "Kayla and I just finished the supply closet anyway. I still feel cramped from sitting in there all day. I'll let her know and you can just meet me by the door?"

Nico nodded again, still not able to find his voice. He stood up after Will turned past the curtain and his vision faded to black for a second. He quickly sat again and took a few deep breaths and finished the water next to his bed. Once his vision had cleared he stood up a bit more slowly and felt more like himself. _It was just a bad dream_ , he thought.

Will was leaning against the doorframe, looking out into the yard. He glanced up as Nico approached and handed him some gum, smiling. "Thought you might not have a toothbrush on you."

Nico smiled and popped a piece in his mouth. They set off toward the lake. It felt good to be up and outside. Nico knew he had needed the rest, but now his legs felt stiff and weak.

"So, uh.." Will started, glancing sideways at Nico. "I don't know if you have bad dreams a lot or anything…"

Nico tensed up. So, they were going to talk about it. At least he was outside and could … walk away slowly ... if he needed to.

"Well, before your friends left, Annabeth pulled me aside and said that she and Percy kept having dreams about Tartarus," Will said, staring at the ground as they walked. "They sounded pretty bad. She asked if I had anything that would help, and I gave her something to take. It doesn't work if you take it all the time, but it's something, you know?" He glanced over at Nico again, who didn't look up. "Well, I'll leave some out tonight if you want to try it. You know, if you have those too or anything."

Nico just nodded. They walked the rest of the way in silence and sat at the edge of the dock. Nico folded his legs up, his arms around his knees, but Will stretched out and soaked in the sun, eyes closed, reminding Nico again of a lanky cat.

Nico looked out at the lake, thinking about the day last summer when Clarisse had led the charge to throw Percy and Annabeth in together, and everyone but Nico stood around laughing about how they were finally together and how long they stayed underwater kissing. For each second they had spent down there, it had felt like another piece of Nico's heart shattered. As Nico gazed at the softly rippling surface, he was glad to know that the memory didn't bother him anymore. He genuinely liked Annabeth, and was glad Percy had found her.

Will sat up and slid his flip-flops off. Nico looked over as he moved closer to the edge and rolled up his jeans, dropping his feet in the water. He was so different from Percy, Nico thought. So much more thoughtful and calm. Nico chastised himself for starting to go down that path - Will was just a friend. Barely a friend, even. Nico didn't need to start ruining it by getting weird and hung up on him. He had already spent enough time pining over someone far too attractive and confident and probably straight to think about Nico that way.

"So …" Will started, glancing over at Nico with a grin, "your cabin. Are you going to update the theme now that you've discovered the world of tropical prints? Maybe add some palms out front, a fake parrot sitting on that skull?"

Nico barked out a laugh, and Will smiled even bigger. "Whatever, Solace. If you had free reign to design your own cabin when you were 10 and then left the rest of it to a bunch of skeletons, it wouldn't've made it on the cover of _Good Housekeeping_ either."

Will splashed some water out into the lake with his feet, still smiling. "Yeah, you're right. Mine would've had more bones, though, probably. You missed a great opportunity there. Just imagine a white picket fence out front but Made from femurs. You can still add that, you know…"

Nico glanced over. "Yeah? Have you been hiding a gothy emo side, Solace? What would the sun god think?"

"Whatever, all of his favorite painters and poets were dark and moody, he'd probably love it," Will said, leaning back on his elbows. "Besides, who's to say I can't enjoy a good skull now and then? Doctors are all about blood and guts and gore. Healing and death are two sides to the same coin. It's not my fault I have blond hair and skin that tans if I spend even a second outside."

He had closed his eyes again, head tilted up toward the sinking sun, and Nico took the opportunity to study his face once more. He smiled, thinking about this golden surfer-type boy living in a house covered in bones and black and red.

"I guess I'll leave the skull up there, then," Nico said, returning his gaze to the lake. "But I have to do something about the interior. I'm not planning on painting the walls in pastels or anything - and definitely no parrots - but one of those skeletons I had work on it must've been an aspiring vampire because the beds are literally coffins. Not exactly something I want to wake up to after … you know… naps like today's."

Nico rested his head on his knees and his thoughts began to drift back toward Tartarus.

Will nudged him with his shoulder and Nico glanced over. "Hey. I get it. If you need help with painting or figuring out those unintelligible furniture assembly instructions or whatever, let me know. I promise to be better company than undead help. And besides, you still haven't been cleared for any underworldy stuff, so you're sort of stuck with me."

They locked eyes and Will blushed a bit, and looked away. Nico smiled and looked down at the lake again. Will stood suddenly and started unrolling his jeans.

"Well, it looks like people are heading in for dinner - do you want to eat in the mess hall?" Will said as he slid on his flip-flops.

Nico glanced toward the campers starting to emerge for dinner and hesitated, thinking about the empty Hades table now that Hazel had left. "Uh… I think I'm still too tired for all of that. But you can go, sit with your siblings or whatever. You're probably sick of Pop-Tarts and chips. I'll be fine," Nico said as he stood up and stretched.

Will stared at him for a second, then seemed to shake himself. "You know what, I still have a bunch of papers to read through. Want me to grab us something and I can meet you back there?"

"Sure, yeah, that's fine. Thanks."

As Nico headed back to the infirmary, he smiled to himself. Maybe he would get a fake parrot, just to see what Will said.


	4. Chapter 4

August 7

 **Will**

It was Nico's last day in the infirmary - his 72 hours would be up right before lunch. Will realized that he was disappointed. He told himself that it was because the infirmary was so quiet, that he'd run out of things to do with nobody here. But really, he knew that even if it was packed he'd still notice Nico's absence. It was silly. They hadn't even had a full conversation until a few days ago. But Will was drawn to something in Nico. At first he thought it was just that he needed to process the whole Octavian thing, but now that seemed like it had happened ages ago. No, as he talked to Nico more, he realized that there was more to it. Maybe Kayla was right, maybe he did have a type. He thought that after everything Matteo did, how mortified he'd been when it had all ended, that the thought of getting close to another dark and handsome brooding demigod would have sent him running. But maybe it was that he knew Nico wasn't like his ex at all - he couldn't imagine Nico playing with someone's emotions, he was too kind, too selfless to do something like that. And besides, Nico wasn't concerned with what other campers thought or following stupid camp traditions. It was refreshing, now that Will had been at camp year-round for a while, to hang out with someone who didn't care who the newest couple was or what the next prank would be or how to win capture the flag at any cost.

Will walked into the infirmary and noticed that Nico was already awake, reading _Murder on the Orient Express_. Will grabbed his clipboard and headed over to start taking his vitals. Nico put the book down and smiled at Will.

"So, excited to finally get out of here?" Will said as he checked Nico's pulse and took note that his weight had improved a bit.

Nico looked surprised. "What? Oh, yeah, I guess it has been a few days. I didn't realize - sleeping for a day and a half sort of threw me off."

Will glanced at him, trying not to feel too glad that Nico sounded a bit disappointed himself. "Well … don't think you're rid of me quite yet. I haven't given you the green light to use any of your powers, you know. So … that will require some supervision, of course."

"Seriously?" Nico said, whining. "I haven't done more than walk to the lake since I got here."

Will adopted his serious doctor demeanor. "And that's all you'll be doing until I say otherwise, young man. You need, uh, physical therapy. Make sure you don't pull anything or melt into goo trying to summon a skeleton dog."

Nico looked like he was about to laugh, but kept a straight face as he replied. "What do you recommend, doctor?"

"I think physical therapy twice a week until we get you up to shadow traveling again," Will said, tapping his clipboard. "I expect a month of rehabilitation, at least."

"If that's what you think is best, doctor," Nico said seriously. He dropped the act and asked, "Did you still want to practice sword fighting? Percy and Jason already decided that we're doing our classes together, but I can stay after or go early or something. You know, a trade for making sure I don't melt into a puddle when I resurrect that dog."

Will gave him a big smile. "Yeah, that'd be great. Just promise not to laugh too much at how bad I am, or else I might happen forget how to heal sword wounds."

"Deal."

* * *

 **Nico**

As soon as he was out of the infirmary, Percy and Jason tracked him down and dragged him to the mess hall. Chiron seemed to be ok with the children of the big three eating together, or maybe he was just ignoring it until the other two boys left for the school year. They caught him up on their class schedule and started talking about strategies for the last game of capture the flag for the summer, ten days away.

Nico paid enough attention to nod or agree when it was expected, but kept glancing over at the Apollo table, eyes finding a certain blond healer all on their own. He and Will locked eyes once, and before Nico could look away and pretend that he was just scanning the room, Will smiled. Nico blushed and looked down at his plate.

"... and you should totally do that too, Nico," Percy said, turning to him.

"Yeah, totally, whatever strategy you guys want," Nico replied, not sure what exactly he was agreeing to.

Percy gave him a weird look. "Uh, cool? I'm gonna go say hi to Annabeth before our next class starts. See you guys at the wall in a bit."

Once Percy was gone, Jason looked at Nico thoughtfully. "Percy was just saying that you should come with me when I visit them at school this fall."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know. Sure. That sounds great." Nico shoveled some food into his mouth.

Jason peered at him again and glanced over at the Apollo table. "So, uh, we're all leaving for the school year. You're still planning on staying here, right? You sure you won't get bored?"

Nico looked up at Jason and shook his head as he chewed, trying to look nonchalant. He couldn't help glancing at the Apollo table too.

"Mhmm. You'll probably end up getting to be pretty good friends with some of the other campers. I bet Piper could get her cabin to set you up with someone..."

Nico nearly choked. He managed to swallow before urgently whispering, "What? Set me up - who? I mean, why, uh, why would you think that-"

Jason laughed. "Calm down, I was kidding. I think you'll be fine. We weren't here for very long, but everyone seems really nice. I'm glad you're staying."

Nico just nodded, trying to suppress the blush that hit his cheeks. The Aphrodite Cabin, getting involved in his … personal affairs. What a nightmare. He was pretty sure his dad knew he was gay, and his friends didn't seem to care, really, but the thought of his love life becoming part of camp gossip … he didn't think he'd ever be comfortable with that.

Annabeth and Percy walked back over to the table and the four of them headed toward the training area.

As they walked, Nico fell into stride with Annabeth. "Hey, so, you do … building stuff." Nico like Annabeth well enough, but he wasn't really used to talking to her yet.

She just smiled, though, and said, "Yeah, I do that sort of thing. What's up?"

"So, my cabin, it's a nightmare. Literally, it looks like a nightmare about vampires…" and they spent the rest of the walk talking through a game plan to make some changes before the summer ended.


	5. Chapter 5

August 10

 **Will**

It was Sunday, no classes or training. Some campers had gone home for the weekend, and the rest were mostly lounging around the lake in canoes or by the shore on blankets. Will was heading to meet Nico for their first day of P.T. Will still shook his head at how ridiculous it was. The Son of Hades didn't need _him_ to say when he could or could not use his powers, but Will was glad enough to have a reason to see Nico. He hadn't quite gotten up the courage to go chat during mealtimes, not when Percy and Jason flanked the smaller boy like protective older brothers.

He arrived at the clearing near the edge of the woods to find Nico already there. He was looking so much better than he did when he first walked into the infirmary. He was still a little too thin, and Will suspected that his skin would stay pale and his eyes wouldn't ever regain their deep warm hue, but there was color in his cheeks and he didn't have an air of exhaustion hanging around him anymore.

Nico watched Will approach and smiled. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, what was the first thing you learned to do, the first power you realized you had? It's probably easiest to start there."

"I think the skeleton thing," Nico said after a few seconds. "Pulling bones up from the dirt and stuff."

"Great," Will said, walking toward Nico. "We're in a forest, so starting small shouldn't be hard. How about you try for a mouse and we'll go from there? I want to check your vitals after each animal and make sure your fingers aren't smoking or disappearing or something. Let's get a baseline - can I, uh, take your pulse?" Will asked, looking up at Nico. It felt weird just taking Nico's hand outside of the infirmary. Nico held out his wrist, though, and Will checked him over.

Will leaned against a tree and watched as Nico looked around the clearing. His eyes stopped at a certain spot and he held out his hand. The shadows seemed to bend around Nico and suddenly a tiny mouse skeleton climbed out of the ground. Nico watched as it started sniffing a nearby leaf and he walked over to Will. His vitals were all stable, and Nico moved on to a larger animal.

45 minutes later, the clearing was full of skeletal woodland creatures. A fox was trying to catch the mouse, and an owl sat on a nearby branch and seemed to rattle instead of hoot. Nico and Will sat next to each other, watching all of them and laughing.

"So, this isn't super freaky?" Nico asked, looking over at Will.

"Honestly?" Will smiled, "It could be I guess. But no, I think it's really neat. When they're all out here like this they sort of remind me of shadow puppets or something. It's cool that they died but when you bring them back they're just the same, really. It's sort of comforting, you know?"

Will was actually enjoying himself a lot. Nico had seemed nervous at first, but after the mouse and a couple rabbits started playing, he began to laugh. His vitals had been fine the whole time, too, and he didn't seem to be in any danger of fading into nothing. It felt like their macabre petting zoo in the forest was totally normal.

"I think you should talk to a shrink if you think this is cute," Nico said, grinning. "But I sort of see what you mean. I think that raccoon over there is my favorite. I might keep him around. He'd be sort of like a pet cat, right?"

"Only if you save the lizard for me," Will said, bumping Nico's shoulder.

They fell into silence and Will let himself pretend that this was real. That Nico wasn't here because Will had pulled rank or something and told him he had to show up. Will let himself pretend that they did this all the time, just sat in the woods together, surrounded by weird-cute skeleton animals. Maybe Will would put his arm around Nico and they'd snack on terrible junk food and laugh as Nico's skeleton raccoon would try to steal it from them.

But the sun was getting low and their clearing was getting dark and Will had to hold up the pretense that this was physical therapy or whatever. He sighed and stood up.

"Well, Mr. di Angelo, you're officially cleared for resurrecting animals under 50 pounds, but nothing more. And no sustained efforts. I'll see you on Wednesday for your next appointment."

Nico smiled up at him and Will's stomach did a flip. The other boy stood up and looked around as the animals sank back into the ground. "Same bat-time, same bat-place," Nico said holding his hand out.

Will laughed and shook his hand. "Oh my gods, you've missed decades of pop culture and you decide start with _Batman_ episodes from the 1960s?"

"Hey, Chrion isn't exactly up to speed on these things either. Those were the most recent VHS tapes he had at the Big House."

Will rolled his eyes and they started to walk back to camp. "Well I guess you have to start somewhere."

"Yeah, it's a start," Nico said, bumping shoulders with Will as they walked.


	6. Chapter 6

August 14

 **Nico**

Over the past few days Nico had fallen into a regular schedule. He ate meals and went to classes with Percy and Jason during the day, then either had P.T. or worked on his cabin in the evenings. If he was honest with himself, the P.T. days were his favorite. He hadn't gotten Will to help him with his cabin yet - he didn't want to push his luck - but Annabeth had taken charge of recruiting volunteers, so Percy, Jason, and Piper usually joined them.

Tonight they were moving out the coffin-beds and assembling frames that were more simple and modern. They had already painted the walls - instead of red and black they were charcoal with what Annabeth called an 'accent wall' in a pale green that made the constant green fire less sinister looking. Jason and Percy had enthusiastically taken on the job of disassembling the old bed frames, while Annabeth directed Piper and Nico in putting together the new ones.

"Ok, find Panel A - no, not Peg A, Panel A - and connect it to the tapered end of the Panel C and Panel F parts you just put together - no, no Nico, this side - here," Nico sat back as she took the parts from him and rearranged them to match the diagram she had. Piper caught his eye and smiled.

Nico was glad they were all here. It had made everything go so much faster. A few more days and he'd be finished. Chiron had even let him buy a TV to mount on the wall after he'd showed up at the Big House _again_ asking to watch a movie in the middle of the night. Nico insisted that he didn't have as many nightmares if he fell asleep to something in the background, and he suspected Chrion just wanted his privacy.

There was a knock at the door and Nico looked up, a part of him expecting to see Will. But it was a Hermes kid, holding a package. "Uh, this came for you, di Angelo."

Nico hopped up and took it, smiling to himself. Annabeth took his spot on the floor and started working on the beds by herself. Piper came over to see what the package was. Nico glanced up as he opened it.

"Uh, it's dumb," he said, glancing up at her. "It's like, a joke. But when I was ordering the TV I saw this and …" Nico took out a stuffed parrot. "See, Will was making fun of me for that shirt I was wearing during the last battle, and asked if I was going to redo my cabin to match, and…" he trailed off.

"I think it's cute," Piper said. "Why not have something up that makes you smile? Where's it going?"

Nico grinned and walked onto the porch. Piper grabbed a chair and helped him figure out how to attach the fake bird. They took a few steps back to admire the effect.

"It's perfect," she said.

Nico didn't think 'perfect' was the right word. 'Ridiculous' would've been more accurate. Rather than bring to mind Nico's floral print shirt, the parrot made the cabin look more like a pirate's house. Nico was pretty ok with that, though.

"Thanks for helping," Nico said, watching Percy and Jason through the window. They were throwing screws and washers from the old beds at each other, one just barely missing Annabeth. "I mean, all of you… with the whole cabin. Not just the parrot. If it was just me I probably would've gotten halfway done painting one wall and just given up."

"Absolutely, Nico. That's what we're here for," Piper said with a smile. "I think Jason would do anything you asked if it meant you were staying here. We're all just ready for things to be quiet and normal for a while, you know? But... if you _do_ ever change your mind about camp, or want a break or something, you know you can come stay with any of us. Jason and I will be out in California near my dad, you'd definitely have a place to stay. Besides, I think the sun might do you good," she joked.

Nico just nodded. He was still getting used to the idea that he had so many places where he was welcome.

"Speaking of getting some sun…" Piper said, looking sideways at Nico. "I hear you and Will Solace are hanging out…"

Nico froze and stared at Piper. "Uh, what? No, I mean, I guess but… it's just to make sure I can use my powers or whatever. Physical therapy, you know."

"Nico, I just got to camp last year, but I haven't heard of anyone getting 'physical therapy' before," she said, rolling her eyes. "Besides, did you forget who I'm a daughter of? Don't try to pretend you don't like him."

Nico was about to protest but realized it would be useless. "Ok fine, yeah, but Will's like, all tall and smart and nice and blond and -" Nico paused, sighing. "It doesn't matter, anyway. He's a healer, I'm all sorts of messed up, I'm probably just a really complex project for him or something. Plus, I'm still working on how to have _friends_ , I wouldn't even know where to start with anything more. And on top of all of _that_ , who's to say Will's even - you know. Like me."

Piper sighed and turned to look right at Nico, who was glaring at the ground in front of the door. "Look, I don't know Will all that well, but the feel I got when we visited you the other day, is that he sees you as more than just a project. Don't write him off just yet. And don't be afraid to look for something more from someone, either. You deserve to be happy. After everything we just went through, we're lucky to even still be here." Nico could feel her thoughts drift toward Leo, how not all of them _had been_ that lucky.

"I guess what I'm getting at, is that you've faced scarier things than a 15 year old healer," she said, smiling again. "But whatever happens with him, you should know that you can trust him. I can promise that much."

Nico looked up and smiled at her. He'd been doing his best to avoid taking a close look at how he felt about Will, but soon enough he'd run out of medically motivated reasons to see him … unless he started 'accidentally' letting his guard down during sword fighting or something so he could visit the infirmary. But Piper was right, he should be honest with himself and figure it out before long. Coming out to Percy and admitting his crush had been a bit terrifying, but he felt better once it was out in the open.

Inside the cabin, Annabeth started shouting at Jason and Percy to stop playing around and Piper and Nico glanced at each other, laughing, and headed back in before anyone had a meltdown.


	7. Chapter 7

Notes: I'm so happy everyone seems to be enjoying it as much as I enjoy writing it! You've probably noticed that I break the chapters down into the days. I have an outline that goes right into Trials of Apollo (there won't be a chapter for every day, of course), so we'll see things be cute and sweet, get a bit rocky, and then get better again before campers start disappearing and Apollo shows up. I'm trying to pace myself so I don't get burnt out or write something that is out of character because I just want to get to the point, so I hope the plot speed doesn't drive anyone insane.

I'm doing my best to fit it in the timeline of the books and check references for camp layout etc, but if I do miss something please feel free to let me know!

* * *

August 19

 **Will**

As he walked up to Nico's cabin, he smiled and shook his head at the parrot. When he noticed it a few days ago, glancing out of his cabin window as he got dressed, he bursted out laughing. Some of the other campers had given it weird looks, but nobody seemed to have been brave enough to ask Nico about it.

Will knocked on the door, thinking they could grab some breakfast from the mess hall before practicing sword fighting prior to Nico's class with Percy and Jason. Will hadn't completely embarrassed himself the first time around, though he suspected Nico took it easy on him. P.T. had been going well too - Nico was now able to resurrect a few human skeletons at a time before getting tired. Will figured they could start on Nico moving earth around next.

After waiting a couple minutes with no answer, Will cracked the door to the cabin open. Maybe Nico had gone to eat already? But he saw movement in the pile of blankets on the far bed, and realized that Nico was deep in a nightmare.

Will entered the cabin, quietly shutting the door and saying Nico's name softly, not wanting to startle him. Nico thrashed in his covers again, and Will moved toward him. The bed frame was covered in frost and the air around Nico was significantly more chilly than the rest of the cabin. He knew that Nico wasn't fond of touching, but Will wasn't sure how else to calm him without scaring the other boy more.

Will sat on the edge of Nico's bed and gently put his hand on Nico's shoulder, muttering soothing words. Nico rolled toward Will's warmth and curled up against him, still hyperventilating. Will moved his hand to rub Nico's back and his breathing started to slow down. After a few moments, Will felt Nico tense up again, and realized his eyes were open, staring at nothing.

"Hey, uh, sorry. You were having a nightmare or something and… well, I was going to see if you wanted to get breakfast before practice but you didn't answer your door, and I looked in to see if you'd already left - I didn't mean to intrude or anything. But then you weren't waking up and it seemed sort of bad and - sorry," Will was blushing and realized his hand was still on Nico's back. He cleared his throat and moved it. "I can leave, and if you want to skip today I get it-"

"No," Nico said quickly. "No, it'll be good to do something." He was still curled up next to Will and buried under the covers but his breathing had calmed. Will thought his eyes still had a haunted look to them but he had relaxed for the most part and the chill began to recede.

"I'll um, just wash my face and change and we can go," Nico said, not looking at Will. He grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom.

Will stood and looked around the cabin. He hadn't seen it before Nico changed things but it looked nice now, simple furniture and sparse decorations. Some of the books Will had brought Nico were sitting by the bed and there was a photo of Nico and Hazel on the wall.

Nico came back out of the bathroom. "Sorry about all of that," he said, smiling shyly. "Thanks, you know, for waking me up. Sometimes it's hard to … snap out of it or whatever."

Will just nodded. He could tell Nico felt uncomfortable, but honestly Will was impressed that Nico was able to shake it off so quickly. And it struck him as sad that Nico was probably good at it because he'd had a lot of practice… and that it was something he felt he had to apologize for.

Will gave him his best cheery smile. "So, your cabin - it looks great. I like the exterior decor. It's no femur picket fence but…"

Nico laughed, "True, it turns out there aren't really enough spare femurs in the ground around here and I didn't want to worry about trying to import."

"Right, very practical. Those over-seas femurs are just marked up way too high."

Nico laughed again. Will was glad that he had gotten him smiling. What a terrible way to wake up.

"Well, I'm almost finished with everything," Nico said, looking around. "The TV is supposed to get in this week and Annabeth wants me to pick out a rug or something - she says it'll make it feel 'homier' - but then I think that's it."

"Nice, a TV! One of my brothers has a small DVD player thing he brings over the summer. I'm sure he'd let you borrow a few movies - unless you were planning on watching more _Batman_ reruns?"

"Nope, I actually finished those already," Nico said. "I think Chiron was relieved I'd finally be out of the rec room. So yeah, thanks, that'd be cool."

"Cool," Will said, nodding. Then, they headed toward the armory and Nico promptly disarmed Will four times in a row.


	8. Chapter 8

August 21

 **Nico**

Nico left his cabin, freshly showered after an afternoon in the forge. He headed toward the infirmary, hoping that Will was working. He had gotten a burn earlier from Percy and Jason messing around and bumping into him right as he was holding a sword-in-progress over the flames. The burn wasn't bad but he might as well get it looked at...

He saw Will as soon as he came through the door. He was sitting with Kayla at the main desk sorting through some large boxes. Will looked up and smiled.

"Hey! We just got this huge shipment - it was supposed to come a few days ago but the tracking got rerouted or something. Did you stop by to visit or did you impale yourself and just need a band-aid?"

Nico held up his arm, "A bit of both."

"That's it?" Will said, laughing. "The great Ghost King can't handle a little burn?" He took Nico's arm and looked closer.

"Hey, I'm just trying to keep Reyna from having an excuse to show up with the Roman Army," Nico said, rolling his eyes. "You're welcome."

Will just smiled, held his hand over the burn, and started chanting. A few seconds later there was nothing left.

"All set. Free to go."

"Well, actually, I wasn't kidding about the visiting part," Nico said, absently rubbing where the burn had been. "The rest of my afternoon is free - do you need help with those boxes or anything?"

He hadn't seen Will much in the past couple days. The most recent game of capture the flag had gotten about half of the Ares cabin stuck in the infirmary, so Will had been pretty busy. Being a third - or fifth? - wheel around Percy, Jason, Annabeth, and Piper had gotten old.

Kayla glanced up, "You know, Will, I told Austin I'd listen to some new song he wrote, so if you two want to finish this…"

She gave Will a meaningful look and he sighed. "Yeah, sure, no problem."

She flashed them both a huge smile and pushed the packing list and a pencil into Nico's hands. "Perfect, enjoy!"

Will watched her leave and shook his head. "Sorry, you have no choice now. We were just matching the contents to the packing slip, and then we'll put it all in the storage closet. It shouldn't take too long."

"No problem, really." Nico honestly couldn't think of anything else he'd rather be doing. He'd gotten pretty comfortable in the infirmary during this three days there, and the company wasn't too bad.

Ok, fine. He had a crush on Will. Piper was right, Hazel had already figured it out, and Jason probably suspected as much. Nico figured he might as well accept it.

Will started counting out different types of bandages and creams as Nico checked them off. Once they'd gotten through each of the boxes, Nico helped Will shove them toward the open storage closet.

Will paused and glanced inside, then seemed to blush. Nico looked in too, "What? Something wrong?"

"What?" Will said, turning around. "Oh, no. Just… a stupid joke Kayla made. So, this is the storage closet," he said as he dragged the first box inside. "There should be one or two of each of the things we just got still up on the shelves, so just look around and line up the new stock behind those. And Kayla will poison you in your sleep if you put something in the wrong place, so if you don't see it's spot just let me know."

Nico nodded and grabbed some boxes of gauze. "Oh yeah, my TV got here today. Jason helped me set it up after lunch, so it's ready to go for movie marathons."

"Seriously? Awesome. Well, I'll grab that stack of DVDs from my cabin and we can see what's in it?" Will said excitedly. Then he hesitated, "Or, I mean, you can pick whatever you want and just hold onto them, I didn't mean to invite myself or something."

"No, I don't even know where to start, so you can help me pick something that's come out in the last decade, at least. If you aren't doing anything tonight maybe we could watch something?"

"Yeah, that sounds great. Great," Will said, blushing again. They fell back into silence as they worked their way through the next box.

After a few minutes Nico spoke. "So, crazy capture the flag, huh?"

Will laughed. "Yeah. It was like everyone was so happy they survived that they decided to almost kill each other. I spent most of the game ranking who would need treatment first in my head."

It had been the kids of the big three plus the Aphrodite cabin plus the Athena cabin against everyone else. Basically, Chiron was letting the rest of the Seven get away with a few more things before they left for the summer. Percy and Jason decided Nico, Piper, and Annabeth were helping them get one final win.

"Yeah, the Athena kids really went all out. You should've seen Annabeth's battle plans. Dry erase boards were involved. I was surprised at the Aphrodite cabin's ruthlessness too, I thought most of them didn't care about fighting."

"All is fair in love and war, right?" Will said, suddenly bitter. "I guess they've gotten better since Piper took over that cabin, but for a while… well."

Nico looked over at Will. He wasn't used to seeing the other boy angry, but Nico was honestly a little worried that the boxes in Will's hands would burst into flames from the way he was glaring at them.

"What happened?" Nico asked quietly.

"Well," Will started, glancing up, "they used to have this initiation thing, you see. When new campers were claimed, Drew made them seduce someone and then break their heart before they'd be off bathroom duty or something stupid like that. I don't think many other campers knew about it. I didn't, at least."

Nico could tell where this was going. Some girl had probably tricked Will. Nico was already plotting what sort of half decomposed dead animal he would send into her bed.

"Well, at a campfire one night, right in front of everyone, my boyfriend - or who I thought was my boyfriend - outed me and broke up with me all at once. It was horrible. I mean, looking back, everyone forgot about it in a week or two because one of the other Aphrodite kids did basically the same thing but hetero and with way more yelling. But still. They all pretty much sucked for a long time. Piper seems nice, but… they still aren't really my first pick, you know?"

Nico understood, he wouldn't be able to let go of something like that very easily either. But most of his focus was on the fact that Will was actually gay… he had thought Piper was just being nice and encouraging because it was Piper, not because she thought he legitimately might be an option for Nico. He didn't really think that he had a chance for anything, but he hadn't actually been friends with anyone else _not straight_ before. That was something, at least.

After a few minutes of silence while both boys stared at nothing, thinking, Nico looked over, "Me too."

"What?"

"Not about the Aphrodite kids. I mean, Piper is great but I don't care about the others, whatever. But I'm… I'm gay too."

"Really?" Will looked back over at him. "I mean, cool."

"I just… I'm just not used to it being a thing, you know? That people know."

"Yeah, totally. I won't say anything. I get it."

Nico nodded and grabbed the rest of the jars out of the box at his feet.

"I was sort of outed too, but by Eros. And it was just Jason there, so, not as terrible as Drew and everything."

"Yeah, just an immortal god bullying you instead, whatever."

Nico looked up at Will, immediately defensive, but then realized he was joking. They both smiled.

"So," Will kicked one of the boxes aside. "I think we got through all of it. I'll clean these up tomorrow. Thanks for helping."

"Sure, no problem," Nico said, feeling shy.

"So -" they both started to say at the same time.

"Sorry, you first," Will said, awkwardly.

"Um, still up for a movie later? Your pick."

"Yeah, for sure. I'll find something good."

"Cool."

"Cool."

"Yeah, well, I should go, uh - see you in a bit."

"Cool."

Nico managed to leave the infirmary without actually running into a doorframe, but just barely. Once outside he wanted to melt into the nearest shadow so he could immediately die from how terribly he'd ended that interaction but settled for almost skipping the whole way back to his cabin instead.

He spent the next few hours trying to pretend he wasn't nervous. He cleaned his cabin, changed shirts twice, made sure he knew how to work the tv, and moved all of the pillows and blankets to Hazel's bed as a makeshift couch. He finally ran out of things to do and sat on the edge of his own bed trying to read. Really, he was just staring at the page and running over every interaction he and Will had in the past couple weeks with the new filter of Will being gay.

Will was just his friend, right? Surely there hadn't been anything that suggested that he wanted to be anything else … right? Nico wasn't sure which answer he wanted. On one hand, Will was gorgeous and smart and funny and totally easy to be around and probably really nice to cuddle with. But with Jason, Piper, Percy, and Annabeth leaving soon, did Nico want to risk it? If Will found out how Nico felt and didn't feel the same way … Nico wouldn't be able to even look at him, much less stand being at camp all on his own. Just because Will was the only other gay kid his age that Nico knew about didn't mean they had to get together. Will had dated people at camp before, it wasn't like he was desperate. Plus, Will had … _dated people_ before, and Nico could barely say he was gay out loud. Will probably saw him as the emotional equivalent to a toddler or something.

Before Nico's thoughts could spiral any more, there was a knock on the door. He jumped and shook himself, and opened the door to Will standing there with a few DVDs, a freshly popped bag of popcorn, and some candy.

"Hey, figured we can't do movie night without the appropriate snacks," he said as he walked in and dumped them on Hazel's bed. "So, we have the first _Lord of the Rings_ , which is from more than 10 years ago but very essential high fantasy, _Dawn of the Dead_ if you want something scary, or _Moonrise Kingdom_ , which is by this director Wes Anderson who's another son of Apollo and all of his stuff is like, sort of surreal and melancholy but also really beautiful. Your call."

Will turned and looked at Nico, who tried to ignore the butterflies and a little bit of panic and just focus on picking out a movie. "Uh, the first one is fine."

"Cool," and Will went over to the TV and popped the DVD in the internal player.

Nico looked around, realizing that they would be sitting really close - twin beds weren't exactly roomy - and in the dark and all by themselves. Suddenly Nico was hyper-aware of literally every movement he made. Was he blinking too much? Not enough? His lips were chapped. Did Will just see him lick his lips? Was that weird?

"Ready?" Will said, leaning against the wall in the middle of the bed.

Nico just nodded and curled up in the corner, wedged between the headboard and wall. Will started the movie and handed him the open bag of popcorn, smiling at him. "If you like this, there are more that come after it and they're based off of books, so…"

The movie began with the prologue and Will fell quiet. Nico had a hard time concentrating on whatever had happened with the elves and some rings and a little demon guy that Nico was pretty sure he'd seen in the Underworld. Once the story got moving, though, Nico got wrapped up in it and started to relax. Every so often Will would hand him the candy or popcorn or look over and say something like "this is the best part, just wait."

Around the time that the fellowship made it to Rivendell, Nico realized that it had been a while since Will had nudged him to tell him 'the best part' was happening. He looked over and Will had fallen asleep against some of the pillows. Smiling and taking the last of the popcorn from him before it could tip over, Nico stretched out a bit more and reached for a blanket, his movements causing Will to shift in his sleep and lean toward him.

There was a pillow between Nico's shoulder and Will's head, but he still counted it as basically cuddling. Nico finished the popcorn and made it just until the Gates of Moria before he fell asleep too.


	9. Chapter 9

August 22

 **Will**

He woke up disoriented. He wasn't in his bed … definitely not in his cabin. He looked up and saw Nico's TV, still on, with the logo bouncing around the screen. He realized that he had been woken up by the sound of other campers heading to breakfast. Will flushed with embarrassment. He really hadn't meant to fall asleep. Kayla and Lou Ellen were going to be insufferable.

He didn't really want to walk out of Nico's cabin, obviously having slept there, while everyone was outside. Will wasn't interested in fielding all of the significant glances, and he was sure that Nico would hate him if anyone started asking questions. He decided to burrow into the pillows and half-sleep just a little longer, at least until everyone had made their way to the mess hall. It was only when he shifted did he realize that his pillow was Nico's stomach. He froze - not wanting to make any sudden movements for fear of waking the other boy. Nico had fallen asleep too, leaning against the headboard with one of the coforters half over himself.

Will's movement caused Nico to pull the blanket up and curl toward Will. The extra weight on his stomach, though, must have registered and Will felt Nico tense up, awake.

"Uh, morning," Will said, sitting up. "Sorry, I totally didn't mean to fall asleep here."

"Oh, yeah, no, it's fine," Nico said, not making eye contact.

"I was going to wait until everyone had gone to breakfast before going back to my cabin…"

At that moment there was a laugh outside, as someone caught up with friends. Nico glanced at the window at back at Will.

"Yeah, no problem." Nico stood and began to fold the blankets and toss the pillows back in place.

"So, did you like the movie? I don't remember falling asleep, I hope I wasn't snoring or something," Will said, laughing awkwardly.

"Yeah, no, I liked it. The- the movie. I actually fell asleep too, before the end. But it was good, thanks."

An awkward silence stretched out. Will peeked out the window. "It looks like everyone went over, so I'll just get out of your way. See ya."

Will left before Nico had time to respond. He leaned against the door outside and mentally chastised himself for being so awkward. It was an honest mistake, people fell asleep during movies all the time. He wouldn't think about how nice it had been, waking up like that. And how he had maybe intentionally leaned toward Nico when he felt himself getting tired.

He looked up and realized that Lou Ellen and Cecil were sitting on the steps of the Apollo Cabin. Great. Lou Ellen gave him a roguish grin and raised her eyebrows.

Will walked over and held up a hand once he reached them, "Ok, first thing, nothing at all happened, I just fell asleep by accident. And second thing, get inside so you can help me analyze literally everything from yesterday while I change for breakfast."


	10. Chapter 10

August 27

 **Nico**

Nico got to the clearing early. It was the last day of his physical therapy with Will and he was nervous. They hadn't talked at all about Will falling asleep in Nico's cabin the other night, but Nico didn't think he was imagining that their arms kept brushing up against one another or that Will was visiting him during meals more or that they seemed to find each other during every break.

Piper had talked to him again, trying to prod him into doing _something_ to show Will how he felt. Nico insisted that he wouldn't be able to actually _say_ anything, but Piper had started listing off all sorts of things he could do instead. Finally, Nico agreed to take Will on a date for their last day of PT. He hadn't _told_ Will he was doing this, and he wasn't about to say that's what it was, but he was supposed to do a long-distance shadow travel with Will today as a final check of strength. Will thought they would just travel from the forest to Thalia's tree, but Piper had encouraged Nico to take him into New York.

"Go to one of the museums, eat some ice cream, it'll be soooo nice," she said. Nico had given in and Piper immediately started telling him about all of her favorite museums and exhibits that they should see. She also offered to cover for them in case Chiron noticed their absence, and, finally, gave Nico some money.

"Piper, I'm not, like, your _kid._ You don't have to give me money for the movies or something," he said, rolling his eyes.

"No it's fine, I'm going to be at my dad's by next week anyway so it's not like I'll need it." Nico suspected she used some charm speak because he couldn't bring himself to argue.

Nico was lost in thought when Will got to the clearing. "Hey! Drachma for your thoughts?" Will said, smiling.

Nico just shook his head and they started running through the basics. Nico brought out his favorite raccoon and a few human skeletons, then sent them back. He moved some earth around, opened and closed a fissure, and bathed the clearing in darkness. After shadow traveling from one side of the clearing to the other, Will nodded and walked over.

"Well, just the long distance shadow travel is left, but really I think you're totally fine."

"Cool. I'm ready. But I was thinking… have you been to the American Museum of Natural History?"

Will looked confused. "Uh, no. Why?"

"Well, I thought we could go."

Will was quiet for a few seconds. "You mean, right now?"

"Yeah, you said I was totally fine, right? And the city isn't really that far, not like what I was doing a month ago. I have some money - we can get food when we get there and you can make sure I'm not about to disappear or whatever and if you don't want us to shadow travel back I can always just call Jules-Albert." Nico did his best attempt at puppy-dog eyes, but wasn't sure how well he pulled it off.

Will caved though, and smiled. "Ok fine, but any sign of disappearing or being tired or _anything_ and you're calling your zombie."

Nico just grinned and took Will's arm, stepping into the shadows.

They arrived at the edge of Central Park and Will immediately fell to the ground. "You do that all the time? I feel like I was just on a rollercoaster, but it was all ice, and ..."

"Right, sorry, I forgot to warn you. You get used to it, I promise," Nico looked worried and kneeled down next to Will.

"No, it's fine, I just wasn't ready for it." Will sat back in the grass. "I might need a second though."

Perfect. This was probably the worst start to a date ever. Did it make it better or worse that Will didn't know he was on a date? It was probably best he didn't know.

After a few minutes Will stood up, less pale, and they walked into the museum. Nico got them tickets and they decided to wander through the rooms with gems and minerals first. The museum wasn't very busy, and the hush over the exhibits meant they didn't say much to each other, just pointed out something interesting now and then.

Nico was glad for the quiet, because he couldn't get Piper's advice out of his head. _Tell him how you feel. You two obviously connect. He obviously likes you, and maybe he doesn't want to make the first move because of stupid Matteo or your zombie army or something. Don't fall into some holding pattern where you're both waiting for the other to do something, trust me. You hardly even talk about anything else, so please just do me a favor and tell him already._ Nico suspected that she had been hangry when she told him that last part.

They moved on to the fossil halls. "So," Will leaned over, talking softly in Nico's ear so the guards couldn't hear, "if you wanted to, could you make that T-Rex and Apatosaurus chase each other around?"

Nico suppressed a shiver from Will's breath against his neck. "Hm… maybe? It feels like some of their bones are actually casts though, so I'm not sure how well it would work."

"Oh, bummer. What are those powers even good for then?" Will said as he bumped his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll talk to my dad about that."

They walked through a few more exhibits before Will sighed, "We should probably head back. I told Lou Ellen that I'd let her practice some mist stuff on me later."

"Oh, right," Nico was disappointed. As much as he didn't really want to say anything to Will, he also couldn't get Piper's voice out of his head. He knew that he might not get a better chance to tell him, and Piper's warning about getting stuck in some sort of friend/not friend limbo seemed worse than just getting it over with.

"Um, want to get food in the cafe first?" Nico said, in a way he hoped sounded very casual and not at all desperate.

"Yeah, sure. Maybe it'll make the return trip easier."

They picked out some snacks and found a corner table. Nico felt panicked. Should he just say it? No, he should sort of steer the conversation in that direction, right? How would one do that? Especially since they were just sitting there in silence.

"You ok? Your ice cream is … freezing," Will said, poking the side of the paper bowl. "Like, it's colder than when they gave it to you."

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"Because if you don't feel ok, we should just call Jules-Albert."

"No! I mean, no, it isn't that. It's nothing."

"... ok."

They went back to silence. _Great. Tell me to go fight Kronos, no problem. Tell me to say a couple sentences to Will, I literally freeze._ He took a deep breath.

"Thanks for coming today. I know we were supposed to just stay around camp."

"Yeah, it was cool. I hardly ever get to leave, it was nice." Will smiled at him and Nico tried to get his nerves under control.

"If you ever want to do this again, like, as a date? Or, you know, not as a date. Or whatever. I'd like that." Nico swallowed and was suddenly very interested in his ice cream. Will didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"Yeah."

Nico looked up. Will was blushing and staring at the table. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, a date. Um, I'd like that too."

"Really? I mean, ok. Yeah. Awesome."

They fell back into silence, but both were very obviously trying to not grin and they kept glancing up at each other. A few minutes later, both boys had finished their food and they stood to leave. They ducked in a deserted hallway and Nico brought them back to camp.

Will handled the return trip much better. "So, I need to go find Lou Ellen, but … see you later?"

"For sure, later." Nico was still elated and didn't trust himself to say more than a few words at a time. Will just nodded and headed off toward the cabins.

Nico found Piper at the archery range. He didn't even have to say anything. She just looked at him for a second, squealed, and then hugged him and said, "Ohmygods finally. You're going to tell me everything that happened."


	11. Chapter 11

**note:** I've had a ton of trouble uploading this chapter - I'm so sorry to those who have gotten a bunch of notifications or only been able to see code!

 **Will**

It had been a few days since Will and Nico had gone to the museum. A few days since Nico had shocked Will by actually asking him on a date. Will had expected to be the one to break down and make the first move, and he had been debating with himself (and Kayla, and Lou Ellen, and every so often Cecil) about what to do, and how to do it, and if Nico would even welcome something like that or if he needed more time.

Since the trip to New York, though, Will had hardly seen Nico. Jason and Piper were leaving the next morning, so Hazel, Frank, and Reyna had come in from New Rome a few days ago and the whole group had spent almost every moment together. Chiron had even turned a blind eye to Annabeth and Piper leaving their own cabins to eat at the Hades table with the rest. Will had gotten comfortable talking to Nico with Jason and Percy there - they usually fell into some sort of strategy discussion or argument about video games anyway - but he wasn't prepared to face all of them at once.

He was glad that Nico had such a close group of friends, but he couldn't help feeling jealous that they had been monopolizing all of his time. He knew it was childish, but after how they'd left things … he needed to have proof that he didn't just imagine Nico asking him out, and that things weren't weird between them.

Lou Ellen sat down next to Will. "Hey, stop pining, you don't pull it off well."

Will turned to look at her. "I know. It's pathetic. I'm trying. But it's been days ! How is he acting like nothing happened? I mean, nothing did happen, but we made plans for something to happen, basically … and he's just acting like it's whatever!"

"You got all of that from staring at him across the rooml? Honestly, the only moods I've ever seen from him are grumpy, mildly less grumpy, or stoic. But what do I know? Anyway, you're supposed to help me with archery."

"I still don't know why you didn't ask Kayla or Austin to help with that. They're both way better."

"Yeah, but I'm way worse. Practicing with you makes me feel like I can almost keep up," she teased.

Will threw his napkin at her and stood up, laughing. They headed toward the archery range and she quickly started quizzing him.

"Ok, so, where do you think you'll go? With his shadow traveling you can literally go anywhere. That's nuts. And are you two, like, together now? Are you boyfriends? Do you want to be? Do you think you'll kiss, or wait?"

Will sighed. He had dwelled on all of those things and more over the past few days. "I don't know, I suppose he can pick where he wants to go. Honestly, I'm just happy to be able to leave camp. But, I mean, he isn't out or anything, so it'll probably be pretty low-key. Which is fine, I don't want to make him tell people."

"Yeah, I keep forgetting that he's from like, decades ago. Hazel too, it's so weird. She stopped by the other day - her mist control has gotten way better - and we were talking about how at camp she doesn't really think much about it because it isn't like there's much technology around, but imagine being out in the world and not being used to like, computers. Crazy."

"Yeah, I mean, Nico has been on his own more - not at either camp, and he was in a school when Grover found him - but I think he's still getting used to the culture difference."

Lou Ellen nodded. "Hazel mentioned some of that too. Nico was in Italy in the 1930s. That's when the fascists in power and anyone who didn't fit a specific image was removed in one way or another. Hazel thinks that Nico internalized some of that. I mean, she made it sound like he gets that it isn't as big of a deal to be out now, not like it was, but that atmosphere isn't that easy to forget I guess."

"Exactly. He's already dealt with so many messed up things, I don't want to push him into something. He has a tendency to run away from things, you know?"

"Yeah, not surprised," she nodded. "I supposed that's some baggage, huh?"

"I mean, it doesn't bother me, but I'm just worried that it'll bother him."

She gave him a sort of sad smile and handed him a bow. "Well, one day at a time, right? Cheer yourself up a bit by telling me how terrible my form is."

* * *

 **Nico**

After breakfast, Nico and his friends spent the day at the edge of the lake. Piper and Jason described the route they had planned to search for Leo on their way to California, then the group spent the rest of the morning telling stories about him. Nico didn't have much to add - the smaller boy had mostly avoided him at all costs - but he enjoyed seeing his friends laugh at the trouble Leo always got into.

A little before lunch, Piper and Annabeth took Reyna to see some of the new temples and get sandwiches for everyone. Percy and Frank jumped in the lake to escape the heat (Frank as his signature giant goldfish), leaving Hazel, Jason, and Nico leaning against a tree in the shade.

Nico watched Will and Lou Ellen walk toward the cabins. He and Will hadn't talked since they shadow travelled, and Nico's nerves spiked each time he saw the other boy. He wanted to catch up, but hadn't been able to find a good time or good excuse to duck away from his friends, and Will seemed to be giving them all a wide berth. Nico had started to worry that he'd changed his mind, that Will wasn't coming by at breakfast anymore because he wanted to back out of their unplanned date or something.

Hazel leaned over suddenly and said, "So, Nico, think you'll be ok with all of us leaving soon?"

Nico looked at her, confused. "Yeah, of course. Hazel, I'm used to being way more alone than this. I can handle living at camp by myself."

"I know, I know. Your PT has been going ok? You're cleared to use your powers and everything?"

"...yeah? Why?"

Jason sighed. "Hazel is trying to be tactful. Piper told both of us about your visit to the museum with Will."

"She ...what? I didn't tell her she could-"

"Nico," Jason cut him off. "Hazel is your sister and I'm Piper's boyfriend and one of your best friends - at least I think I am. She didn't announce it to the camp or something, calm down." Jason looked annoyed but Hazel looked guilty.

"I am calm!" He took a breath. "Fine. I just… didn't think she'd say anything. Yeah, Will and I went to the city last week, and I basically asked him if he wanted to do it again, like, as a date."

"Ohhh, Nico that's so exciting!" Hazel said. "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing. I don't know. We didn't really talk about it then and I haven't hardly seen him since and he probably doesn't want to anymore. He was probably just being nice or something, I don't know why I even asked. It'd be stupid, right? Like, can you imagine?"

"Uh, yes, Nico, I can," Jason said. "And I don't think it'd be stupid, I think you're letting your anxiety get the best of you."

Hazel sighed. "Nico, you should talk to him. Lou Ellen said that he really likes you and he was really excited when you asked him out and-"

"What, Lou Ellen knows too!? So, the whole camp does know?"

"Oh my gods, Nico, Lou Ellen is one of Will's best friends. Please, I know that being gay wasn't accepted when we were little and I understand why that makes you nervous, but I promise nobody cares now. Please don't let that get in the way of you finding out where this could go. Will seems really great. And Lou Ellen says he really does like you."

Nico tried to glare at the water and hold on to being angry that everyone seemed to be discussing his personal life, but the fact that Will did, in fact, like him like that kept creeping in and threatening to make him grin.

"I think it was really sweet that you took him to a museum," Hazel said, smiling at him.

"You're making me look bad, Nico, and it wasn't even an official date," Jason said, laughing. "Piper told me and then immediately started hinting about all of her favorite places in California."

Nico gave in and smiled.

"I did what?" Piper said, sitting down with a bag full of sandwiches and chips. Reyna and Annabeth were a few feet behind her.

"Uh, sweep me off my feet?" Jason said, pulling her into a side-hug.

"Yeah, ok. Do me a favor and get the other two out of the lake so we can eat."

Nico didn't keep track of conversation over lunch, he spent most of it replaying what Hazel had said, he really likes you and he was really excited when you asked him out . He couldn't quite believe his luck. He resolved to go talk to Will as soon as Jason, Piper, and the New Rome crew left the next day, while he still had Hazel's words ringing in his ears.


	12. Chapter 12

Sept 1

 **Will**

Nico leaned over and pulled the completely charred marshmallow off of Will's stick. Will tried to look offended but knew he wasn't at all convincing. The group around the campfire had thinned - in addition to Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Reyna leaving that morning, about half of the other campers had left for home and school over the past few days. The final wave, including Percy and Annabeth, would leave the following week. Will usually felt lonely this time of year, with most of his brothers and sisters packing to go home while he tried to help where he could, but tonight he felt a little giddy. As soon as Nico had waved his friends off and had a few words with Percy and Annabeth, he had walked directly to the infirmary to find Will. Will had known this because he'd been sitting on the steps of the Big House, watching as everyone left - but mostly watching Nico.

Will was sure that he'd been smiling like a fool as Nico walked towards him, but he couldn't help himself. He had spent days second guessing everything with Nico, but as soon as he sat down next to him, his worry had disappeared. They didn't talk about anything noteworthy - just what they both had been up to and what camp was going to be like once everyone left - but the unspoken things, like Nico's frequent sideways glances and his constant half-grin and how close they were sitting to one another, reassured Will that he didn't just imagine their day at the museum.

Even though a good amount of campers had left, they still had classes. After talking through what was supposed to be breakfast and cabin inspection, they parted ways. Will was called into the infirmary over lunch - two Ares kids had gotten into an argument while polishing armor - and the rest of the day seemed to speed by. During dinner, Kayla had elbowed Will in his side, making him nearly choke on his hamburger, and he looked up to see Nico standing across from him.

"Hey, uh, are you planning to go to the campfire?"

Will couldn't speak, his mouth still full, but he nodded and tried to look very nonchalant.

Nico half-smiled, and asked hopefully, "Want to walk over together?"

Will could only nod again, and Nico left before Will could get his food situation under control enough to speak.

Kayla had just smiled at him with huge, excited eyes for the rest of dinner.

And that was how he found himself sitting awfully close to Nico, sharing a marshmallow-roasting stick, and barely paying attention to the songs his siblings were leading.

Will pointed out a shadow created by a piece of kindling next to the fire. "Doesn't that look like my pet lizard?"

"You mean the dead one?"

"You'll hurt his feelings if you keep reminding him of that."

Nico just smiled, eating the marshmallow, and all of a sudden Will saw an actual lizard skeleton skitter out from under their bench. Luckily it was dark, so nobody else noticed it among the flickering firelight, and Will couldn't suppress his laugh.

"Yeah, I think that looks more like him," Nico said, casually.

"You're going to give someone a nightmare," Will whispered as he grabbed Nico's arm, but he kept laughing.

"Is that not my job? Creepy son of Hades and the Ghost King and all that?" Will couldn't believe how innocent Nico managed to look as a small skeleton mouse crawled over to join the lizard. There was humor in his eyes, though.

All of a sudden, Drew Takana leaned between them. "You two lovebirds look awfully cute," she sneered.

Nico froze and Will pulled his hand back. Will turned to glare at Drew, now standing over them

"Oh, don't stop flirting on my account," her smile had a malicious hint. "Will, it seems you really do have a type." And she walked, smirking, back to seat with the other Aphrodite campers.

Will turned to Nico and started to say something about how horrible and miserable Drew was, but before he could get a word out Nico stood and stepped into the shadow of a nearby tree.

Will stayed at the campfire, staring sadly at the now-inanimate lizard bones. After a few minutes Lou Ellen and Cecil sat on either side of him.

"What was that?" Lou Ellen asked.

"Drew must have it out for me or something. Or maybe I'm just an easy target."

"What'd she say to you? We couldn't hear anything but she sure looked pleased, which is never good when it's Drew," Cecil said.

Will sighed and told them about the exchange. In a matter of minutes his mood had plummeted. Cecil and Lou Ellen tried to cheer him up, but finally Lou Ellen ordered him to go find Nico.

"He's probably just back at his cabin. Just go talk to him, before everyone starts heading back."

 **Nico**

Nico was mortified. He had known it would only be a matter of time before the other campers found out and started making fun of him. He had been foolish to think that he would be safe from judgement at camp - he should've remembered what it had been like after the Battle of Manhattan. Everyone had seeme nice and friendly, but after a few weeks they all caught on that he was weird and different and started avoiding him. How had Will Solace convinced him otherwise?

Will. It wasn't Will's fault, but at this point Nico couldn't go back to just being platonic friends with him. And besides, Drew and whoever else would still encourage the rumors. He'd have to cut things off. He could leave camp, go help his father or stay in New Rome. It would be easier for both of them if he put a stop to it all right now.

He was in the middle of packing what little he had when there was a knock on the door. He saw Will through the window and considered not opening it.

"Nico, I see you. Come on, just let me in."

Nico opened the door, but couldn't bring himself to make eye contact and turned to keep throwing his things in a backpack.

"What are you doing?" Will asked, sounding worried. "You're packing? Are you leaving or something?"

Nico stopped with his back to Will, taking a deep breath. "Yeah, I think… I just think it'll be easier if I'm not here."

"What? What makes you think that? Nico, Drew's a jerk but you can't let her just-"

"Will, there's no point," Nico said, turning towards him but not making eye contact. "What? We were going to go on some stupid date and then everything would just work out? No. It's a waste of time and energy and…" Nico steeled himself, "and I think you should leave my cabin. Now."

Nico knew that if Will had kept arguing with him, he would convince him to stay. He couldn't stand the idea of sitting at breakfast the next morning with everyone looking at him, whispering. No, he needed Will to leave before he could change his mind. It would be easier for both of them that way. But he almost couldn't stand the look of hurt and anger Will gave him before he left, slamming the door.

Nico had lost his panicked energy and now just felt defeated. He sat on his bed and put one of the books Will had loaned him into his backpack. He stood and looked out his window at the Apollo cabin, but other campers had started walking back from the fire and all he saw were Will's siblings standing around the porch laughing. Nico turned and stepped into a shadow, leaving camp.


	13. Chapter 13

September 12

 **Will**

"Come on, Will, you can't seriously find anything else to work on in here." Kayla, Lou Ellen, and Cecil were sitting on the main desk of the infirmary, watching him re-hang all of the curtain dividers after washing them.

"Actually, I think I'm going to consolidate some of the meds. I noticed that there are a bunch of Aspirin bottles that only have a few pills in each, and I'm sure those aren't the only ones, so.."

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Come on, even _I'm_ not that obsessive about the storage closet. Stop pretending that you're busy."

"Yeah, Will, it's been almost two weeks. He isn't coming back, you have to move on."

Will glared at Lou Ellen. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Cecil snorted. Lou Ellen sighed. "Nico. Nico di Angelo. That kid that used to live in the Hades cabin and was going to stay through the year but Drew was an A+ bitch to you two and scared him off and you've been moping around in here ever since pretending none of it actually happened. That's what we're talking about."

Will glared at her again and continued to hang up the sheets.

"Will… please," Kayla was trying for a more gentle approach. "Just come with us to the campfire tonight and try to have a good time and be nice."

"Nice to _whom_?"

Kayla looked down at her nails. "Just, you know, whomever."

Will looked at her suspiciously, and Lou Ellen jumped in. "Will, look, you've got to get over di Angelo. We're just trying to help. If he wants to send himself into exile for whatever reason, that's his problem. But you're still here and we miss the old Will, the one who actually left the infirmary sometimes to see his friends."

"Yeah, and to help you forget Nico we found you someone better."

"Someone your type!"

Will groaned.

"Please, Will? Just come tonight and be nice, for us? Your friends who you've been neglecting?"

"Please?"

Will looked at Cecil, who shrugged as if to say, _they're not going to stop, you know._

Will sighed and nodded, resigned.


	14. Chapter 14

September 20

 **Nico**

"Nico, you can't _not_ go back with me," Hazel said with a stern look. "Your whole excuse for being here is that you're helping me with this. Plus, you're my ride."

Nico was sitting on Hazel's bed at Camp Jupiter, watching her as she packed.

"Can't you just Iris Message or something?"

"You know those have been unreliable recently. Half the time it cuts out in the middle of a sentence. No, it's easier if I talk to Chiron in person."

Nico sighed and leaned back. He had shown up at Camp Jupiter after the disastrous campfire night nearly three weeks ago. Hazel and Reyna hadn't said anything for a few days, but after about a week Hazel had managed to convince Nico to at least tell Chiron where he'd gone. Nico had gone back to Camp Half Blood when he knew everyone would be at morning lessons and told Chiron that he wanted to help the camps work together and that he'd be at Camp Jupiter for a while. Chiron was annoyed that he had disappeared again, but seemed resigned that he wouldn't be able to force Nico to stay. They had agreed that to make up for Nico missing lessons, he would do an 'independent study' and help Hazel organize the Camp Half Blood visit to New Rome. Hazel had convinced Reyna, Frank, and the senate to invite the Greek demigods to the Feast of Jupiter, held during the Plebeian Games in early November. Nico wasn't exactly interested in event planning, but he figured that this was the best deal he'd get.

He had managed to only visit Camp Half Blood when he knew most of the campers would be busy with lessons. He wasn't interested in seeing anyone. Or, rather, he was very interested in _not_ seeing one certain someone. But now Hazel wanted to spend the night there, a weekend night, and Nico was beginning to regret his involvement. It was much more difficult to avoid someone when there weren't scheduled classes.

"Look, Nico, the Games are in a month and a half. After that you won't be able to use helping me as an excuse to hide from Will anymore."

That snapped him out of his thoughts. "What? Will? I'm not hiding from him!"

Hazel just gave him a look.

"Really! No, I just... missed you. And New Rome. And I'm being a good brother."

Hazel rolled her eyes. "Nico, Lou Ellen Iris Messaged me a few days after you got here. She was pretty angry that you had just disappeared, accused you of playing with Will's emotions and said you were just like someone called Matteo. I didn't want to pester you at the time, and of course I defended you, but the day before we all left it seemed like things with you and Will were going well and then the next night you show up here and don't even mention him once? Honestly, even if she hadn't called, do you think I'm so oblivious that I wouldn't've figured it out?"

Nico sighed. "No, just wishful thinking I guess." She threw a shirt at his head.

"So why _did_ you leave?"

Nico was silent for a few moments. "The day you all left, everything _was_ going well. We talked for a while and then went to the campfire together, and it was really nice."

"But then…"

"But then that Aphrodite girl Drew butted in and started making fun of us and I guess I just panicked."

"Did she say something about you being gay? How did everyone just let that happen? It almost makes me want to give her a nice little diamond…"

"No, no she didn't say anything about _that,_ really. She just made fun of _us_. Said we were flirting and was all weird about it." Nico just stared at the floor.

"Well I might still give her a diamond. But really, it just sounds like run-of-the-mill teasing. Before Frank and I got together people said stuff like that _all_ the time. It was terrible, I know, but in the end it wasn't really any of their business. I tried not to let it get to me - I didn't want to let them have more of a say over how I felt than _I_ did, you know?"

Nico understood. When he first got to New Rome he very determinedly avoided thinking about Will. But despite his best efforts, he kept getting reminded of him. Every time he walked past the hospital he caught himself thinking about how excited Will would be to see their treatment methods. Even Reyna's gold dog would remind Nico of Will, and how his hair looked almost metallic in the sun. Nico knew it had gotten really bad when he found himself thinking about Will wistfully after someone's arm had been sliced open during the War Games. Nico had slowly come to the conclusion that maybe disappearing from Camp Half Blood wasn't the answer. Absence wasn't helping him get over Will. He had committed to helping Hazel at Camp Jupiter, but knew that once the Plebeian Games were over he should return to the other camp.

Nico was also ashamed that he had been so reactive about what Drew said. He liked to think of himself as stoic and independent and uncaring of what other people thought. That self-image didn't really line up with running away from Drew's snide comments. Will probably hated him for just disappearing, or was at least so unimpressed with his cowardice that he wouldn't be interested in taking Nico up on that date anymore. But Nico hoped they could still be friends. He had to try to repair that, at least.

Finally, Nico sat up. "Fine, I'll grab my stuff. Meet you out front in a few minutes."

Fifteen minutes later, Nico and Hazel were in front of the Big House. Chiron was sitting on the porch, reading, and glanced up as they climbed the stairs. "Ah, good, right on time. Hazel, what do you have for me?"

They sat down and Hazel pulled her notes out of her bag. Nico sat through the next hour without adding much commentary to Hazel's very thorough lists of where campers could stay, what sort of tours they might be interested in, and transportation options. Finally, Hazel reached the end and Chiron nodded.

"That's a fantastic start. I let the campers know about the basics last week and they're all quite excited. If you don't mind, I'll look over all of this and we can meet again in the morning to nail down the schedule?"

They both stood and walked toward the mess hall. Lunch was about half over, and they sat down at the Hades table as most people were just finishing their food.

Nico's eyes immediately found Will, who had his back to them across the room. Hazel noticed. "Nico, what if you ask Will to the Feast of Jupiter?"

"What? He'll already be going. Why would I invite him again?"

She looked at him as if the answer was obvious. Maybe it was.

"Hazel, I doubt he wants to go out with me anymore. Running away and disappearing isn't really at the top of the list for dating advice."

"I still think you should ask. Even if it's just as friends, you can offer to show him around. I'm sure he'd prefer that compared to trailing along on an organized tour."

Nico thought about it the rest of lunch. Hazel announced that she was going to track down Lou Ellen, and rather than risk a lecture about how terrible he was for disappearing, Nico decided to at least go say hi to Will.

He found him in the infirmary, paging through binders and throwing away old notes and intake paperwork.

"Hey," Nico said, almost so quiet that he wasn't sure if Will would hear him.

Will looked up immediately and froze. Nico wasn't expecting the warmest welcome, but it felt weird to greet Will and not get a smile in return.

"Oh, hi. Everything ok?"

"Yeah, yeah everything's fine. Just shadow-traveled with Hazel all the way here from Camp Jupiter - no transparency or anything." Nico wiggled his fingers in front of himself and tried for a joking tone, but it fell flat.

Will just nodded and gave him a half smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Great, congratulations. So…"

"Right, I just … wanted to say hi."

"Just 'hi'?"

"Uh, yeah, and see how you were doing."

"I'm doing fine."

Nico was really trying. He was used to Will being conversational and rambling. He usually only had to say a few things before Will would get caught up in explaining something or telling a story. He didn't know what to do with this version of Will, he seemed so distant.

"Great. Look - I'm sorry, about leaving. It was stupid and as soon as I turned up in New Rome I regretted it, but it took me a while to actually realize that and … I didn't mean to just disappear."

Will was quiet for a few seconds and just nodded. "Well, I don't know why you felt the need to apologize to me. You don't owe me anything."

"I know, I just … we sort of made plans to do something. For a date. And then didn't. And that was my fault, and you probably think I'm a coward or a jerk or something, and I get that. I would too. I mean, I do."

Will looked up, angry. "You don't get to do that."

"What?"

"You don't get to apologize to me for just jumping ship and then feel sorry for yourself about it. That isn't an apology, Nico. And if you didn't actually want to go on a date you could've just said so, just canceled it, instead of going to the other side of the country for almost a month. Not all of us have the luxury of just leaving when we don't want to deal with our problems!" Will's voice had steadily gotten louder as he spoke, and he finished the last few words yelling.

Nico's temper flared too, defensive. "Well, excuse me for being overwhelmed! Look, I said I was sorry, ok? I'm sorry I don't know how to do any of this, that I haven't dated anyone before! I was actually coming here to ask you on a proper date, to the Feast of Jupiter at New Rome to make up for it, but apparently it isn't good enough so just forget it!"

"Well you know what, Nico? You're too late anyway! I'm already going with someone," Will yelled back.

"Good, enjoy it! What do I care?" Nico turned and slammed the door as he left.

"I will, thank you!" Will yelled through the closed door.

Nico hadn't exactly planned for it to turn out that way. He spent the rest of their time in the cabin sulking and watching public access shows while Hazel finalized the trip details with Chiron. Hazel didn't ask what had happened - Nico assumed that Lou Ellen had given her another lecture about him. He didn't feel like bringing it up and having to defend himself to her, and he wasn't really sure that he'd be able to come up with a reasonable explanation anyway.

 _Note: So, I'm aware that in Trials of Apollo, Chiron mentions that they haven't had much contact with Camp Jupiter since Gaea, but let's just ignore that for the purpose of this story. The other events he mentions (campers disappearing, communication dropping off) will all be included, promise!_


	15. Chapter 15

October 21

 **Will**

Will tried not to watch Nico as he sat on the porch of the Big House with Chiron. It had been over a month since their yelling match, and they hadn't spoken since. A couple times a week Will would see Nico at camp discussing the New Rome trip, but he'd rarely do anything with the other campers or even eat at the mess hall before he left for Camp Jupiter again. Sometimes Will would glimpse him practicing sword fighting, but there weren't many campers left who were both a match for his skill and unafraid of him. Nico seemed to have fallen back into constant brooding, and the younger campers, especially, tried to steer clear.

Even though Will was still mad at Nico for thinking things would just be ok after disappearing, he found himself wishing that they were on speaking terms. The guy Kayla and Lou Ellen had set him up with was fine, but not terribly interesting. Will hadn't lied to Nico, he did have a date for the Feast of Jupiter, but it was orchestrated by his friends rather than his own doing. Since the campfire 'blind date' (or as much as it could be in a camp where everyone knew about each other), Will and the other boy had attended one or two campfires a week together. It was nice having someone to sit next to and flirt with a little, but it wasn't the same. If Kayla and Lou Ellen hadn't insisted on Will going to the Feast of Jupiter, and going _with_ someone, Will would've just stayed at camp. He had a hard time getting excited about the trip after hearing all about New Rome from Nico. Every time someone brought it up, he flashed back to Nico's infirmary stay, when they actually started to get to know one another, and found himself wishing that it would be Nico showing him the university rather than a group tour guide.

Will wasn't sure what he wanted from Nico at this point. A large part of him wanted to yell some more. But another part, one that seemed to take up more space each week Nico was gone, simply wanted Nico to come back to Camp Half Blood so they could fall back into the routine they had established in August. Lou Ellen had decided that Will was definitely better off without Nico, and she was leading the charge to make sure Will had the very best time with the guy she found for him, which led to forced 'romantic' situations and her very obvious attempts playing wingman. Kayla was more sympathetic, and while she also wanted Will to move on, she seemed to understand that it wasn't so easy. To her credit, she only called Will out when he got unnecessarily wrapped up in organizing and cleaning the infirmary. Cecil minded his own business, which Will appreciated the most.

As the trip to New Rome drew closer, Will began to avoid Lou Ellen and her questions about how his 'new relationship' was going. He didn't really want to answer because if he said it was going well he'd be lying, but if he said otherwise she would start in on how he had to give it a chance because Nico wasn't coming back, which he didn't want to hear. Will also didn't want to lead anyone on, and discussing his feelings about any of it just reminded him that he wasn't being fair to the other boy _or_ himself.

For the most part, Will tried to avoid thinking about the New Rome trip or his date and often found excuses to spend evenings organizing paperwork and his free class periods working on archery. One good thing that would come out of all of this, at least, was that by spring he would be nearly as good as Austin with a bow and arrow.

Will sighed as he took the long way around the house to the infirmary so he wouldn't run into Nico on the porch. As much as he missed him, he was determined to not be the first one to apologize. Apart from the yelling, Will knew he didn't have anything to apologize _for_. But Will was worried that if he happened to run into Nico he'd let him off too easy, and he needed more time to sort out his feelings and get back to normal.

Will sat down at the infirmary desk and got out the binders of paperwork, but ended up staring at the bed under the corner window for a good 15 minutes deep in thought before he cleared his head and got to work.


	16. Chapter 16

November 2

 **Nico**

The Feast was just under two weeks away and Nico was regretting accepting his independent study. Hazel's duties as centurion had picked up, so Nico was left with finalizing tour details and housing assignments. At this point he could care less if the Greek demigods got a full walk-through of the Senate House or if they were shown the best gelato shop or anything else on their itinerary, but he knew the visit was important to Hazel so he tried his best to be pleasant as he went over the schedule with Terminus for the fifth time.

Chiron had worked with Hermes to get the campers from New Jersey to San Francisco overnight the Saturday before the Feast. There would be a sort of welcoming 'mixer' between the Roman and Greek demigods on Sunday night, and they would stay until the following Friday to watch the parades, chariot races, and other events wrapping up the festival. Terminus demanded to be given a full background of each of the Greek campers, accompanied by photographs and lists of their divine parent, height, weight, and eye color. Nico was glad that he had found Roman demigods to act as group chaperones - he wasn't interested in trying to prove to Terminus that everyone actually was who they said they were once they arrived.

Nico was impressed with how many of the Camp Jupiter demigods had volunteered to help with the visit. He was able to hand off almost every job during the trip to various Roman campers. A few days ago, while he was detailing which jobs had been covered to Hazel and Reyna, he off-handedly mentioned that he was going to skip the mixer and the Feast. His excuse was that he'd need to be up early the following days to make sure breakfasts and tours were taken care of, but he also didn't want to run into Will with whoever his date was.

To his surprise, it was Reyna, rather than Hazel, who insisted he go. "You're helping organize this whole thing and if I have to be there, then you _will_ be sitting next to me the whole time so I don't stab myself with a butterknife." Nico had gathered that she wasn't terribly excited about the date aspect of the evenings either.

Terminus was still describing the many dangers strangers could bring with them, especially Greeks, when Nico caught sight of Frank. "Frank! Um, sorry Terminus, I need to speak with the praetor. I promise to make sure none of the visitors are imposters or possessed or concealing some sort of poison, and you'll get the final list the Friday before. Thanks."

Nico jogged over to Frank. "I'm so glad you walked by. I meant to just drop off the itinerary and he was still lecturing me 45 minutes later."

"Yeah, no problem," Frank replied as they walked toward camp. "Hey, thanks for working on all of this. I know that it isn't really your thing, but if Hazel tried to do it all she'd never have time to sleep. You're a good brother."

Nico smiled. "Well, if I'm going to hide out here I might as well stay busy, right?"

"Right, about that … are you planning on staying longer? Like, after the Games? You're welcome to, but if you are we'll need to start treating you like a regular camper. We could probably manage to skip the probatio phase, but you'd need to take on legionnaire duties and everything. Reyna and I have been sort of letting it slide because you've been working on the Camp Half Blood visit, but some of the senators have started to ask so we can't put it off much longer. Sorry."

Frank looked a little guilty. Nico understood, though. He wasn't acting as an ambassador and he'd been staying at Camp Jupiter for nearly 2 months.

"No, I told Chiron I'd go back to the other camp with them when they leave." He had felt much more comfortable promising that a month ago, but now that the date was approaching he felt some anxiety start to build. He wasn't sure what to expect from life at Camp Half Blood without any of the Seven there. He should probably stock up on box DVD sets of very long-running tv shows to pass the time.

"Good," said Frank. "I mean, not good that you won't be here, but I'm glad you're going to try going back."

Nico just nodded. He wasn't sure how much Hazel had told Frank about what happened with him and Will, but he was glad that Frank didn't say anything about it.

They reached the barracks and parted ways. Nico sighed as he thought about everything he had to get done before the games started. He traded one notebook for another and left again for New Rome. He decided that next time he asked for an independent study, he'd go with underworld jobs from his dad rather than event planning.


	17. Chapter 17

November 12

 **Will**

Will woke up as their train (very high speed, thanks to Hermes) pulled into the station outside of San Francisco. A large bus was waiting to take them the rest of the way to Camp Jupiter. Three Roman demigods greeted them as they got off the train, and once everyone boarded the bus the Romans began explaining the history of the camp and its structure.

The rest of their morning was spent being shuffled from place to place. Reyna and Frank met them after they dropped off their things at the barracks, and proceeded to give a basic tour. The Greek campers had signed up for different in-depth visits to places in the city and at camp the next day, so the praetors just covered the essentials.

Will thought he might be imagining it, but Reyna seemed to glare at him any time they locked eyes. He drifted toward the back of the group just in case she decided to give her metal dogs any ideas.

As they walked through Temple Hill, Kayla fell into step next to Will. "So, how's it going?"

"Hey, it's fine. New Rome seems cool."

"Agreed. You were shockingly uninterested when they mentioned the med program at the university."

Will glanced over at her. "Right, yeah. I guess I wasn't really paying attention."

"Mhmm. So, excited for the mixer tonight?"

"Um, sure."

"Will, you've got to at least pretend to look forward to it. It doesn't really matter to me, but it'll suck for your date if you're distracted and bored the whole time. It isn't his fault that you said yes without meaning it."

"I know, you're right. Sorry. It will be fun. I am excited. See?" He gave her a hopeful smile.

"Ok, now try saying that with more enthusiasm and less of a 'sorry your dog just died' tone."

That made him laugh. "I'm trying! I really am. He's super nice, and it's been fun hanging out with him, I'm sure tonight will be fine. I mean, fun. Really. I'll get over the weirdness of being here soon, I promise."

"Good. And… I know backing out of the date never occurred to you, but pleeease end it with him after this trip, once we're back at camp or something. It's been almost painful to watch you two. He's really nice, and he just keeps trying so hard… and it isn't like you _haven't_ been nice, but I can tell you aren't really into him and it's sort of hard to watch. Worse than you moping around, really. I think you'd be doing him a favor, and it would definitely end _my_ suffering."

"Well, anything for you, sis," Will said as he rolled his eyes but he knew she was right - he had pretended that things were fine for too long, he couldn't keep forcing it. He just had to make it through the next five days of dances and feasts and tours and sporting events and avoiding Nico. No problem.


	18. Chapter 18

November 13

 **Nico**

The mixer had been terrible. Everyone had a good time and absolutely nothing went wrong and Roman demigods got along with Greek ones, but Nico felt like the whole evening lasted a lifetime and he hated every second of it. Large social functions were not his thing, especially with assigned seating intended to get the two camps better acquainted. Hazel had been in charge of that part, and if Nico had known what the tables were he would've definitely faked sick, even if Reyna was actually serious about the butterknife.

The praetors, senators, centurions, and Greek head counselors had all been at a table together. Luckily, Reyna had talked Hazel into seating Nico next to her, but it still meant that Nico had been at a table with Will, who he had successfully managed to avoid so far. They weren't too close to one another, and Nico did his best to not make eye contact or look in his general direction, but he still felt painfully awkward and uncomfortable. Reyna didn't seem interested in making small talk with the counselor on the other side of her, so she and Nico had spent most of the dinner talking about the highlights from the last War Game. As soon as the meal was over, the music began and most of the table left to find their dates or sit with friends, but Nico and Reyna stayed.

"You two look like you're stuck in a jail cell," Piper said as she moved to sit in the empty chair next to Nico. She and Jason had come up for the evening to see everyone.

Both Reyna and Nico glared at her and said nothing.

Piper just laughed. "It isn't that bad. Everyone is having fun! This is great. Nico, you should be happy that it's all going smoothly. And Reyna, wasn't this all sort of your idea?"

"I didn't expect to actually have to stay the whole time," she said, glaring at the people dancing.

Piper smiled and said sweetly, "Well at least you have each other. Misery loves company, right?" Then she left to find Jason and drag him onto the dance floor.

Nico and Reyna didn't move from the table for the rest of the night. Hazel and Frank joined them between dancing and talking to various campers, but had no luck in convincing them to have a good time. Reyna spent most of the evening sketching attack strategies on napkins, and Nico subtly watched Will with his date. He tried to figure out how much Will liked him. It looked like they were enjoying themselves, mostly. It might have been wishful thinking, but Nico thought Will seemed subdued and some of his smiles looked forced.

Nico couldn't help but appreciate how well Will cleaned up. He hadn't seen him in much else besides flip flops and jeans. Tonight Will had on a blazer, button-down, and dress pants that fit his lean frame perfectly and a recent haircut made him look older than the last time Nico had seen him. Nico was pretty sure he'd missed Will's sixteenth birthday, and he felt a pang of guilt.

Nico felt a little better when Will seemed to turn down a couple dances with his date in favor of sitting with Kayla and Cecil at an empty table, but when a slow song came on and Will returned to the dance floor with the other boy, Nico decided that he had stayed long enough for it to count.

He stood and Reyna looked up at him, relieved. "We can leave now?"

"You're the praetor. You can do whatever you want."

"Great point."

Nico had gone back to his bunk in the barracks and read the rest of the evening. The dance ended a few hours later, and the returning campers were all buzzing with how much they'd enjoyed it. Nico was just grateful that he had made it through the night without any confrontations or accidentally opening a fissure to swallow Will's date. The Feast would be easier - it was open to all of the New Rome inhabitants and the Greek campers were seated with their cabins. Nico would be at the main table with Hazel, since they were the organizers of the visit, along with the praetors, senators, and some city leaders, so he'd be far from anyone from Camp Half Blood. It was still more people than Nico wanted to make small talk with, but at least he could be sure it would all be about pretty neutral topics.

Nico arrived at the Feast right as it began and quickly found Reyna, Hazel, and Frank. Everyone was in their formal clothes, and most of the dinner was spent listening to speeches and poems describing the greatness of Jupiter. Between speakers, musicians would walk through the tables performing songs that celebrated the gods. During the breaks, the next courses were brought out and conversation bubbled up. By dessert, Nico was stuffed and had run out of comments about current events in New Rome. He excused himself to get some fresh air before the next orator came out.

He leaned against a column, appreciating the calm night. It seemed like almost everyone in New Rome was at the Feast. The streets were deserted and all of the shops were closed. The fall breeze was cool, but it was refreshing after being crammed at one of the front-and-center tables, surrounded by hundreds of people. He thought he could hear the conversations die down and an orator begin a new story, and he decided to wait for the next musical break to make his way back to his table.

All of a sudden he heard footsteps approaching, and leaned around the column to see Will Solace. The blond was chewing his lip, looking at the ground with an anxious expression as he walked. He didn't seem to notice Nico until he nearly ran into him.

"Oh, hi. Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be out here. Um …" Will turned, looking around at the empty street awkwardly.

"No, it's fine. I just needed some fresh air." Nico searched Will's face. He seemed agitated. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I just … well, I sort of just broke up with my date. By accident. I mean, I wanted to, but I didn't mean to do it in the middle of the Feast. I feel like a jerk. I don't think he really expected it."

Nico had a hard time not smiling, but managed to keep a straight face and simply nod. He wasn't sure what to say. "Did something happen?"

"No! No, he's really nice. He just … well, Lou Ellen and Kayla sort of set us up and it never really clicked. But I guess he thought it did? I don't know, I feel bad. What about you? I mean, how's your night been?"

"Yeah, fine. Uneventful. We're sitting with the senators. Nobody got dumped at my table, so…"

Will laughed. "Hey, too soon."

"Sorry," Nico smiled. "So, what do you think of New Rome?"

"It's huge. I can't believe we had no idea it was here for so long. I went on a tour of the university today. The campus is really nice. They even have a med school that partners with the hospital here, but I think I was the only one on the tour who cared about that so we didn't really spend much time on it."

"Well, if you're free later this week I can ask Reyna to put you in touch with someone over there. I wouldn't mind seeing it either."

"Nico … that'd be great, but … honestly, I'm still sort of mad at you. I mean, right now I know I don't sound like I am because I'm still processing how I accidentally broke up with someone, but last time we actually talked there was more yelling than anything else."

Nico nodded. He had hoped that they could just pretend like it hadn't happened, but he knew that wasn't realistic. "Will, I know. I'm sorry. About that, and about leaving, really. I was an idiot for thinking that disappearing would help and it was shitty of me to just leave without really saying anything. I think I stayed away for so long because I was embarrassed about how I acted … and then I got roped into planning this visit and it was an easy excuse to use. I _was_ feeling sorry for myself, and you had every right to call me out on it. I'm sorry. I'm going back to camp with everyone after the Games end and I hope you'll forgive me enough to at least let me help out in the infirmary or something. I've missed hanging out with you. But, I mean, I get it if you don't want to be friends or anything."

Will was quiet for a long time. "I do have a lot of filing that needs to get done."

Nico tried not to look too excited. "Yeah, absolutely, anything."

"And there are some bedpans that need to be scrubbed really well…"

Nico was less excited about those. "Ok, I can… I can do those."

"My cabin should probably be mopped soon too…"

"Will. You're pushing it."

Will smiled. "I missed you too, Nico. I'm glad you're coming back."

"Me too."

They were both quiet for a while, absently listening to the orator in the background and gazing at the empty streets.

"Don't think I'm kidding about those bedpans though."

Nico laughed and shoved Will's shoulder.


	19. Chapter 19

November 17

 **Will**

It felt like the last two months hadn't even happened. He and Nico had been nearly inseparable since the Feast. Nico had shown him his favorite parts of New Rome in the mornings and the rest of their days were taken up by the the Plebeian Games. They had eaten cannoli at Nico's favorite bakery, watched chariot races, joined in a War Game with the Roman demigods, and toured the med school and hospital. One of the New Rome doctors had even offered Will an internship during the following school year after Nico had gotten him to heal a charioteer with a gash on his shoulder.

Today was the last day of the Games, marked by a final parade from New Rome to Temple Hill. Will and Nico were watching from a balcony by themselves. Nico had gotten frustrated with the crowd on the street, and pulled Will into a shadow. They reappeared on a third floor balcony attached to an empty office space. Will half-heartedly protested that they obviously weren't supposed to be up there, but Nico ignored him.

They were sharing a bag of sweets and pointing out their favorite parts of the procession. Giant sculptures of the gods on top of various wagons and trailers were pulled by groups of their descendants dressed in classic togas who were also throwing gifts to the crowd.

"Nico, we're missing the free pocket knives!" Will pointed at the descendants of Vulcan, dressed in a mix of black, yellow and orange referencing the fires of the forge, who were throwing pocket knives and small hammers.

"I am shocked Terminus is allowing that."

"This view is good but I'll be disappointed if I'm the only person at camp without one of those." Will pouted and grabbed a cookie.

"I'll buy you a pocket knife. It isn't worth getting your feet stepped on. Or getting hit with one of those hammers. Seriously, how did that get past Terminus?"

Will wasn't actually interested in moving from their spot, no matter how good the gifts at street level were. He enjoyed having Nico to himself, and was going to enjoy it while it lasted. Back at Camp Half Blood, Will was worried that Nico's insecurities would get the best of him. What if Drew said something snarky again? Will would've preferred to just stay at Camp Jupiter, where they could leave and walk around the city on their own. But Will knew the relationship between the two camps hadn't gotten to the point of full-time exchange students. Nico was a special case, and Will wasn't prepared to ask Reyna if he could live here too.

They kept watching as different statues moved past them. Fruit and wheat were given out as Ceres rolled by, pearls and seashells for Venus, grapes and pine cones for Bacchus. When Pluto's section reached them, Will burst out with laugher. Nico just smiled as they watched the skeletons and Mrs. O'Leary pull the huge statue. Pluto didn't have other descendants in New Rome besides Nico and Hazel, and Will knew neither were the type to be in a parade, but he hadn't expected ten skeletons wearing black togas to be their replacements. At first, the children watching on the sidelines hid behind their parents when the skeletons approached, but they quickly got over their fear when they realized they were handing out small jewels (not deadly, Will hoped) and poppies.

The two of them watched as the end of the parade moved past, and neither moved to leave even as the last of the crowd dispersed. Fireworks began over Temple Hill and Will leaned back on his elbows to watch.

They sat in silence until the sky fell dark and stars began to emerge. "I don't want to go back tomorrow," Will finally said, now on his back, looking up at the sky.

"Really? Why?" Nico was sitting balled up, with his arms around his knees, watching the city lights.

"I don't know. I guess I'm worried about what will happen."

Nico looked at him. "What will happen with what?"

"You really are dense sometimes," Will turned to look back at Nico. "You know, with whatever we are," he said as he gestured vaguely between them.

"Oh." Nico looked away, down at the empty street.

"I mean, the past few days have been really great. But Nico, Camp is still how you left it. People still gossip, I'm still out … I'm worried you'll disappear again if someone says something. And I'm not saying that you should come out too or anything, just that if we keep hanging out like this people will make their own assumptions. Are you going to be ok with that? And if you aren't, that's fine, but … what then, do we act like we don't know each other or something?"

Nico was quiet for a long time. In the dim light of the streetlamps Will couldn't tell if he was upset or just thinking. Finally Nico shifted and turned to face Will, who leaned up on his elbows.

"Will … I can't make any promises that I won't get overwhelmed or something, but I do promise I won't disappear again. At least without offering to bring you along," Nico half smiled. "I'm scared too, I guess. I mean, right now, sitting here, I don't care what people think and I'd like to believe that when I get back to camp I still won't care. And I definitely don't want to stop hanging out … but it's hard to just let go of that gut reaction, you know? I can't say for sure that I won't be bothered if someone says something. But I won't take off because of it again."

Will nodded. "That's a start."

Nico glanced at him and gave him a small smile. Then he looked back down at the ground and seemed to steel himself. Will felt a pang of nerves about what he was going to say next.

"Well, and... if you just want to stay friends or something I totally get it and it's fine… but I'd still like to go on a date sometime. You know, if you want. And, I mean, it wouldn't have to be secret or something."

Will's heart leapt and he sat up. "Yes. Absolutely, Nico. Wherever you want to go." Will felt like he could live for days off of Nico's smile.

Will didn't trust himself not to say something cheesy and embarrassing, so he just reached out and pulled Nico into a hug. For a second Nico tensed, but then returned the hug and burrowed his head under Will's chin. Will leaned back down and Nico curled up in a ball next to him. They wrapped their arms around each other and Will couldn't say how long they stayed cuddling on the balcony, not saying anything.

Finally, the clock at the city center struck 10pm and Nico sat up. "We have to get back for bunk checks. Come on," and he tugged Will into the shadow of the door.

They reappeared in front of the barracks. Nico turned to look at Will and blushed a little. "So… I guess I'll see you in the morning. On the way back to camp." He seemed unsure of what to do.

Will smiled and leaned down, kissing Nico on the cheek. "Goodnight Nico. I'll save you a seat."

Nico blushed even more and smiled and they both turned toward their respective sleeping quarters. Will couldn't stop grinning, even after he'd gotten into his bunk across from Kayla's and she threw a pillow at him, smirking and shaking her head.


	20. Chapter 20

November 18

 **Nico**

Nico watched Will sleep, using a bunched up jacket against the train window as a pillow. It was mid afternoon and they were speeding back to New Jersey. Nico kept replaying their conversation from the night before. He was still basking in how happy Will had looked when he asked him out, and could practically feel the heat left from where Will had hissed him on the cheek. Nico wanted to curl up next to Will again, but didn't want to wake him up in the process. Or really do that in front of the whole train. Also, Will's date from the Feast kept walking by every hour or so casting sad glances at Will, and even though Nico avoided his gaze each time, it didn't make him feel any less guilty. It wasn't Nico's fault their night didn't end well, but the fact that other boy's terrible evening had resulted in one of Nico's best weeks made him uncomfortable.

Lou Ellen and Kayla had walked by a few times too. The first time, Will had still been awake and the four of them chatted for a few minutes. Lou Ellen didn't look at Nico or even acknowledge his presence. He assumed she was giving him the cold shoulder because of everything that happened over the past couple months, and he couldn't really blame her. His belief was confirmed when she stopped by a couple hours later when Will sleeping. She glared at Nico and quietly told him that if he pulled something like that again she had a bunch of mist experiments she'd been wanting to try out on someone.

Kayla was more welcoming, and had just said, "glad you're back," with a punch in the shoulder as she walked by.

As the train sped closer to the East Coast, Nico's worries about what camp would be like grew louder. Many of them had nothing to do with his feelings for Will, though those still lurked in the background. At Camp Jupiter he wasn't expected to fully participate in anything or follow the schedule given to the other campers. He was there temporarily, and only reported to Hazel and Reyna. At Camp Half Blood he would have to attend classes and meals and 'team activities' along with everyone else. But this time there would be no Percy or Jason to have classes and eat with. There would be no Piper or Annabeth to drag him along to campfires. The only people Nico had really talked to before who would be there were Will and his friends, and regardless of whatever he and Will were, Nico didn't want to just trail after them for the rest of the year. Besides, Will was head counselor for his cabin, a cabin that actually had other people in it. He'd be busy wrangling his siblings and running the infirmary. Nico sighed and looked around the train. There were only about 50 campers who stayed through the school year, and their ages ranged from a couple of 11 year olds up to 18 or so. Apart from Will and his friends, there were a handful of other campers around his age. Nico wasn't sure it would be worth the effort to try to get to know them, and didn't know how to start even if he wanted to. He resigned himself to taking on a very demanding hobby.

"Hey." Will had woken up and was stretching. Nico was temporarily distracted by the muscles in his shoulders. "Stop brooding, I can practically feel you overthinking things."

Nico gave him a half-hearted smile. "Yeah, sorry. Just … camp."

"Nico, less than six months ago you were fighting giants and saving the world. Camp is a vacation compared to that."

"That's what I'm worried about," Nico said, staring at the ground. "What am I going to _do_?"

Will smiled and grabbed Nico's hand, lacing their fingers together. Nico looked up at him and tried to focus on what Will was saying rather than how well their hands fit together and how his heart had picked up speed.

"Nico, you're going go to class, maybe teach one if you want," Nico took a breath to protest but Will stopped him. "Most of us would be lucky if we could handle a sword half as well as you could, you'd probably have a waiting list, I'm serious. You'll help me in the infirmary - I'm holding you to your promise to do filing and clean bedpans, don't think I've forgotten. You'll come to the campfires, probably win capture the flag every week with the help of a skeleton army or something. You have nothing to worry about. I promise. I have a long list of movies and tv shows I'm going to make you watch, too. Honestly, in some ways I like camp better during the school year. There are so many of us there over the summer that the schedules have to be pretty strict and cover the basics and it can get overwhelming - even without end-of-the-world battles - but now with fewer of us we can sort of pick what we want to focus on in class and capture the flag is way less intense and sometimes there are snow days and older campers get to do fieldtrip type things. It's nice."

Will squeezed his hand and and smiled and Nico forgot most of his arguments. He wasn't going to bring up not having any friends besides Will, or whatever they were. But he was right, there was always plenty to do. He smiled and leaned his head back on the seat.

"Fine. I'll wait until we actually get there before I start worrying."

"If you ever get bored just come find me and we'll figure something out," Will said as he gazed out the window at the midwest landscape and rolled his neck to get the stiffness out after sleeping against the window.

Nico's eyes caught on the skin along Will's collarbone. Nico blushed. He was sure Will didn't mean anything _like that_ but Nico's mind had jumped to a few different ways to kill time with Will that definitely weren't camp approved. He was distracted from thoughts about him and Will not actually watching movies in his cabin by Kayla appearing and leaning over the seat in front of them.

"Thank the gods you're awake, Will. How did you even manage to sleep so long? Anyway, Lou Ellen and Cecil won't stop bickering about something boring and Austin has been practicing the same song on his ukulele for the last hour. I was about to wake you up myself so I wouldn't jump off this train out of boredom." She looked over at Nico, "Hey, hope Lou Ellen wasn't too intense earlier. She sometimes gets wrapped up in the spooky Hecate stuff but really she's harmless. The worst she'll do is turn you into a lamp or something, but her magic wears off in a few hours if she isn't concentrating on it."

Nico assumed that was supposed to make him feel better, but it didn't.

"She did what?" Will asked, looking over the seats to find her.

"Will, it was nothing. She was just being protective and lectured Nico a little. It was nothing, right?" Kayla looked at Nico for confirmation and he nodded hesitantly. "Really, she's been in a mood all day. I think it was that Roman kid who she danced with all night on Sunday but basically ignored her at the procession yesterday. Speaking of… where did you two disappear to?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Nico blushed, unintentionally thinking about movie nights and Will and his dark cabin again.

Will glanced over and must have taken his deer-in-headlights expression as a sign of panic, rather than a struggle to not think those things in the middle of a conversation with Will's sister. "Kayla," Will said in hushed tones, unlacing their hands, "Nico isn't out yet. Quiet. Also, none of your business."

That cleared Nico's head. "Will, no, it's fine. I don't care if people know, really."

Kayla smiled brightly at him. "Well that's for the best, because I made up that you two were somewhere with Reyna when we got to the barracks and you weren't with us, but don't expect me to cover for you next time - I have my own romantic rendezvous to worry about," she said, smirking.

"Really, we just watched the fireworks and stars and stuff… but thanks, I guess." Will shook his head and smiled at her.

"Yeah, the 'and stuff' is what I was talking about," she teased.

"You are the worst," Will laughed. But then he looked over at Nico and smiled and grabbed his hand again and Nico couldn't've cared less what Kayla said next.

Nico smiled and listened to them joke with each other for the rest of the train ride. Nico thought about how he really didn't mind her talking about them like a couple … it felt nice. If Drew had walked up to them in that moment, Nico couldn't imagine feeling any sort of fear or panic, though he might still consider sending a dead mouse after her. Kayla also made an effort to pull Nico into their conversation, and coaxed a few laughs out of him by the time they reached the East Coast. A few hours later, when he finally dropped his bags next to his bed in the Hades cabin, Nico felt much more optimistic about what the next few months might bring.


	21. Chapter 21

**Will**

He knocked hesitantly on the Hades cabin door. He wasn't quite sure why he felt nervous. He was leaving in soon to go home for Thanksgiving, and found himself stalling before coming to say goodbye to Nico. Maybe it was because he wasn't sure if Nico would even be here when he got back, and it would all feel like a weird dream. Or maybe it was because he wasn't sure what he and Nico actually were in the first place, and he didn't know if he should say goodbye as a friend or as a boyfriend or as someone in between. They had been back at camp for less than a week and only had a few days of classes before going on break. He and Nico had fallen into their old pattern - hanging out between classes and talking after meals and Nico even made good on his promise to help in the infirmary. But even though Nico said that he didn't care if anyone knew he was gay, Will didn't want to make any assumptions about what that looked like. So he had been as neutral and platonic as he could in hopes that Nico would take his hand at a campfire or return the kiss on the cheek or _something_ , but there had been no clear signs from the other boy.

Nico opened the door and looked like he just woke up. His hair was messy and he was in an oversized sweatshirt and Will thought he had never looked so adorable.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Did you seriously just wake up? It's almost 11!" Will can't help himself and reaches out to fluff Nico's hair.

Nico bats his hand away and tries to fix it, turning back into his cabin. "Get out of here, Solace. I'm allowed to sleep in, there's no class today."

Will follows him in and sits on Hazel's bed, across from Nico, who had crawled under the covers again. "I brought you some TV shows to catch up on while I'm gone: _Walking Dead_ and _The Sopranos_." Will put the stack on his bedside table

"Will," Nico says, taking the top DVD to look at the back, "I'm more than just an Italian who can raise people from the dead, you know."

Will rolls his eyes. "I don't have many options, Nico. They were the only good shows that didn't have discs missing or big scratches." But maybe also because Nico was an Italian who could raise the dead.

"No, I appreciate it," he grins, glancing up at Will, "thank you. I'll give you my full review when you get back."

Will smiles back. There's an awkward silence. At least, Will thinks it's awkward. It's hard to tell with Nico, who has begun to read the back of the _Walking Dead_ case again.

"Well… uh, have a good Thanksgiving." Will started to stand but Nico looked up at him in surprise at sat up.

"Oh. Right now? Um, wait a sec."

Will sat back onto the bed, confused.

"So, I was thinking…" Nico wasn't holding his gaze for more than a second at a time. "If you still wanted to go on that date? Like, maybe next Saturday?"

Will tried to play it cool, but knew he had a huge smile on his face. "Yeah, absolutely. I… I wasn't sure if you still wanted to."

"What? Why?" Nico looked genuinely confused. Will wished he hadn't said anything.

"Oh, I mean, since we got back you just seemed… I don't know. It's stupid. I just thought you might have changed your mind about being out or something."

"What? No. I mean, I really don't know how to do any of this. At all. I definitely still … you know … like you. A lot." Nico was staring at the floor and chewing on his lip and blushing.

Will smiled again and said, "Good. I definitely still like you a lot too." He stood and glanced at the door. "Uh, I do need to go soon though, Cecil's mom is giving me a ride into the city."

Nico nodded and stood up too, still biting his lip. Will didn't feel awkward anymore, though. He had the confirmation he needed. And a date for next Saturday. He felt a little giddy.

"Hey Nico?" Nico just raised his eyebrows and looked up at him, not saying anything. "Can I kiss you?"

Nico's mouth fell open for a second. Will's heart couldn't get any lighter. Nico nodded and then hoarsely said, "y-yeah."

Will stepped closer and leaned down and kissed Nico. It was gentle and innocent and sweet and lasted just a couple seconds but also felt like it could've been a week. He pulled back and they just looked at each other for a moment, a faint smile on Nico's lips and what was probably a stupid looking grin on Will's face.

Then there was a loud banging on the cabin door and the moment ended and Cecil was yelling, "Will! Mom's here, we've got to go."

Will cleared his throat and took a step back. "Ok, well, see you on Monday." Nico was still standing there, just staring at him, but he nodded absently and Will left.

Outside, Lou Ellen and Cecil were leaning against the porch next to Will's bag. They both turned when Will closed the door.

Lou Ellen took one look at his face and broke into a smile. "Ok, what just happened?"

Will tried to look innocent. "What? Nothing. Aren't we leaving?"

"No, no, no. You went in there looking almost nauseous. Now you look like you hung out with a million puppies. Something happened in there. Something good. You aren't about to escape into Cecil's mom's car without telling us."

Will sighed and pulled them to start walking toward Half Blood Hill. "Fine. We're going on our date next Saturday and we kissed. Like, a small kiss, but still."

Lou Ellen smirked. "I knew it. Finally." She poked him in the arm. "He better not screw up again, though, I'm serious."

Cecil rolled his eyes. "Lou Ellen, Will can take care of himself."

"Cecil, you know Will is prone to moping."

"I'm right here."

"Will, all I'm saying is that he better not put one toe out of line. I'm keeping an eye on him."

Will huffed. "I thought you said that you liked him now."

"No, what I said was that when we had class together on Monday he was a good sport about me practicing mist tricks on him. I did not say that I liked him."

"I like him," Cecil said, shrugging.

" _Thank you_ , Cecil. You were always my favorite." Will threw his arm around him.

"Cecil just likes him because he thinks skeletons are cool and Nico seems vaguely anti-establishment."

"Accurate," Cecil says, nodding.

"Ok well after the break maybe we can all hang out or something. He's funny, in an introverted sort of way."

"Mhmm. Barrel of laughs, that one. That's all I hear about Nico di Angelo, that he inherited Hades' fabulous sense of humor."

"Shut it, Lou Ellen," Will laughed. Cecil's mom waved to them and the three piled their bags into the trunk of her car and settled in to answering mom-questions about New Rome and their classes and how their half-siblings were doing.


	22. Chapter 22

November 25

 **Nico**

It wasn't the best looking sword he'd ever seen but it was much better than his first attempt. Nico was spending his Saturday night in the camp forge, where he'd been for most of the Thanksgiving break.

Nyssa, the only other person there, leaned over his shoulder. "Well, at least that one is vaguely sword-shaped."

"Look, not all of us are naturally talented at this stuff."

She just smiled at him and went back to the armor she was building. Over the past few days he had come to really like Nyssa, mostly because she said a maximum of two things to him whenever he was in the forge. If she saw him do something wrong, she just took his tools from him and fixed it without saying anything. He appreciated the silence - or, as much silence as you could get with crackling fires and banging hammers.

Nico had decided to try to make something to make his own practice sword. He got the impression that the other campers weren't too keen on sparring with him when a misplaced jab from his Stygian blade could send them to Tartarus. The swords left in the armory, though, were all unbalanced or the wrong size, so here he was. But at this rate he expected to have a usable practice sword in about 50 years.

Nico was also trying to kill time before next Saturday. And his date. He had completely overthought everything about the evening and at this point he was just trying to keep his mind off of it. And on top of that, there was the kiss. He knew it was a very small kiss but it was Nico's first kiss so it was actually a very major kiss and Nico hadn't expected it. At all. Really, he had no idea how any of this liking-someone business worked. With Percy he basically just avoided him and then made very dramatic but poorly thought out gestures that didn't communicate anything Nico expected them to. He had, at least, figured out that a different strategy would be better. He just had no idea what that strategy was supposed to be.

Plus, he was trying to keep himself from thinking about Will's past boyfriends. Not them, specifically, but the fact that Will had actually been in real relationships before, compared to Nico's very unimpressive zero. He wasn't sure what Will would expect. Did their date mean _they_ were now boyfriends? Nico had a hard time wrapping his mind around that word. It felt very strange in the context of him and Will. Boyfriends were what Percy and Jason were to Annabeth and Piper, something that meant that they did cute things together and held hands and there were sometimes chocolates and flowers and honestly Nico couldn't picture himself in any of those scenarios. Nico was only barely getting used to being _friends_ with Will. He knew he didn't just want to stay friends, and he was excited for the date (underneath all of the nerves), but he also wasn't sure what would happen next. What if Nico was a terrible kisser? He had literally just stood there when Will kissed him goodbye a few days ago, and knew enough to be sure that making out was sort of a two-way street. And what if Will expected to do other things? Nico didn't know what those things might be, even, but he knew there were options. And he would die before asking any of his friends for advice. When Nico's thoughts drifted in this direction, he usually ended up half frozen in the middle of whatever he had been doing, paralyzed from thinking over all of the unknowns. So, instead, he had spent his break alternating between watching the shows Will had brought him and working on his pathetic excuse for a sword. The somewhat dangerous open flames and very loud hammers helped to keep his thoughts in check.

At least he had classes to distract him during the week. Chiron had put him with the Hecate and Nemesis cabins for most things. When Nico had met with him last Sunday there had been some negotiation about the schedule.

"Are you just putting me with those cabins because we're all supposed to be creepy or something?"

"Are there other cabins you'd rather be with?"

Nico's mind flashed through the cabins. If he asked for the Apollo cabin it would seem way too clingy or stalkery or something; with the Hephaestus cabin he'd probably end up strangling someone if they were all like Leo; with the Aphrodite cabin he'd probably end up strangling _himself_ to escape the misery… no. Chiron was right. He shook his head.

"Fantastic. Here's your schedule," he said as he slid a piece of paper over. Nico read through it.

"Actually, could I be with the Ares cabin for sword fighting? It's just that … at least Clarisse would be, like, sort of a challenge."

Chiron sighed. "Nico, I can't just swap everyone's schedules because certain cabins aren't good at things."

"Ok fine, can I raise skeletons to practice against at least?"

Chiron gave him a long look. "Fine, you can join the Ares cabin for that class. Let's see," he said, looking down at his chart, "that's during your Monday/Wednesday free period anyway, so just switch those."

Nico had been nervous on Monday morning. He remembered Lou Ellen's mild threat as he sat down for Mist Control. Of course it had been his first class of the week and of course she was the lead counselor for it and of course she picked him to demonstrate on with an evil glint in her eye. But it hadn't been that bad and he thought she almost smiled at him at the end and the rest of his classes had been pretty low-key.

Nyssa started to put out the fires and Nico realized how late it was. He'd probably scrap the sword he'd finished at some point, but for right now he was pretty proud of it. He helped her clean up and they both left for the night. One good thing about working a whole evening in the forge was that it completely wore him out. He fell asleep almost as soon as he reached his cabin, saving himself from worrying about the date - if he picked the right sort of restaurant or had the right sort of clothes for it or had the capability of actually kissing Will back properly. He'd just wake up worrying about those things instead.


	23. Chapter 23

December 2

 **Will**

It was the night of the _date_. Will was nervous.

"So. Do you know where he's taking you?" Lou Ellen was sitting on one of the empty bunks in his cabin watching Will frantically dig through his shirts.

"No, I told him we could go wherever he wanted."

"So how do you know what to wear?"

"EXACTLY." Will gave her a desperate look and collapsed on his bed.

Lou Ellen laughed. "Ok, no, it's fine. What's that thing Oscar Wilde said? Better to be overdressed or something?" She stood and started to sort through Will's clothes. "Here, put on these dress pants and the nice shoes you brought to New Rome and … it's freezing out so you'll probably wear your wool coat, right? So this blazer and shirt work fine with that and … I don't think you need a tie or anything. I can't see di Angelo taking you anywhere super formal, I don't think he's ever brushed his hair. So… here."

She threw the clothes she picked out at him and Will gazed up at her. "You're amazing. I love you."

"Will, I'm flattered, but don't think you can seduce me right before you go on a date with another man. Now put those on so I can make sure I'm not wrong."

Will knocked on the Hades Cabin door, dressed in exactly what Lou Ellen had picked out. She had also trimmed his hair and forced him to use just a little of Austin's cologne. Will felt foolish - he had just seen Nico at lunch wearing torn up jeans and messy hair - but his nerves were replaced with awe when Nico opened the door. He was wearing semi-formal clothes too, and they fit him perfectly. Everything was shades of black and charcoal and silver and Will thought he could have been in a magazine.

"Hey." Nico grinned at him - a sort of apprehensive and mischievous and exciting grin. Will could have died right there.

"Hey."

"The reservation is in a few minutes, we should go." Nico pulled him inside and shut the door. Will thought for a second that Nico was about to do something very different when they sort of fell sideways and Will remembered how much he hated shadow traveling.

When they reappeared, Will's stomach felt like it had arrived via an icey roller coaster, but it wasn't quite as bad as the last time they went to New York. Maybe he was getting used to it. He looked around and took in what appeared to be a dimly lit warehouse with rows and rows of industrial shelves, all stacked with boxes.

"So, is this like … one of those exclusive, hidden restaurants?" Will started to walk down one of the aisles.

"No … no we weren't supposed to show up here. Sorry, I think I'm nervous or something. We're probably close, maybe this is just next door ..." Nico caught up with him and took his arm. "Here, let's take the shadows again. I don't want to set off an alarm if we try to get out."

This time wasn't as bad - the shorter distance must help - but Will's stomach didn't feel any better. Also, it was cold and drizzling. And they were in an alleyway next to a dumpster. "Uh, Nico?"

Nico had walked out to check the street name. "Shit, we're miles away. I don't get it… I was just there last week."

"Are you feeling ok? No transparency?"

"Yes, fine Dr. Solace." He held up his hands, fully opaque. "See?"

Nico sighed and looked around. "Maybe it's the weather or something. Come on," and he took Will's arm again and pulled him into the shadow of the building next to them.

This time they appeared in the middle of an open field in a park. It was raining harder - almost sleet in the cold. Will felt more nauseous.

" _Cazzo_." Will wasn't sure what that meant but it didn't sound good.

"Nico… we can just eat wherever, really."

"But... I found the perfect place and had this whole night planned … and we aren't that late yet, just ten minutes maybe..." He turned, looking at the dark skyline around them, trying to get his bearings.

Will just nodded. "Ok, yeah, we can get there." Will hoped his stomach could handle another attempt. He gave Nico his best supportive smile and took his hand. Nico looked down and grinned, then pulled them back into the shadows.

The next thing Will knew, he was slipping off of something metal and the hand Nico was holding was all that kept him from completely losing his balance. Nico pulled him closer, grabbing his jacket with his other hand.

"Fuck. Will, I'm sorry. Are you ok?"

"No problem, just a flight of stairs. I would've been … fine." Will looked at the pavement a two stories below. They were on someone's fire escape and the sleet had gotten thicker. The metal below his feet was icy and he wrapped his arms around Nico, partially for warmth but also to reassure himself he wasn't about to fall again. He tried to slow down his breathing and heartbeat.

"I really don't get it… usually my aim is pretty good, especially since I've been there before and we aren't going a long distance or anything…"

"Maybe we should go back. Like, in a car. You have that driver right?"

"Will, I'm so sorry. This is probably the worst date you've ever been on. It probably shouldn't even count, I can't even get us to the stupid restaurant." Will's arms were still around Nico, who leaned his forehead against Will's chest and sighed.

"Nico, this is only the second actual date I've ever gone on and the first one ended with me accidentally breaking up with someone so you're really doing ok." Will squeezed Nico a little tighter. "But seriously I need to sit down for a second before I throw up."

"Oh my gods, I totally forgot you don't like shadow traveling. Right, I'll call Jules-Albert."

Will sat and leaned his head back against the brick with his eyes closed. At the moment, the icey cold was helping to calm his stomach. After a few minutes Nico sat down next to him and sighed.

"He'll be here soon." Will opened his eyes and smiled at Nico. The other boy looked distraught, but also very handsome. In the dim light, with the almost-snow dusting his hair, and the turned-up collar of his coat, and his cheeks flushed from the cold, Will thought that Nico fit perfectly on a chilly New York fire escape in a gritty, film noir sort of way. "Can we pretend this never happened? Like, if your friends ask we just decided not to go or something."

"Nico, it's fine, really. It's sort of funny. Plus, any time away from camp is exciting. I mean, I hadn't ever been in a deserted warehouse before - very romantic."

"Will, that isn't helping me feel better about any of this." But Nico grinned, and shivered a little.

"You're freezing, aren't you? Seriously, did Hazel not make sure you ate while you were in New Rome? Come here," and Will put his arm around him, pulling him closer. Nico curled up against him and Will could still feel him shiver every couple minutes, but the warmth seemed to help.

Quietly, Nico said, "Will? Um, so if the date had actually gone well, what next?"

Will couldn't see Nico's face, so he pulled him closer and rested his chin on his head while they waited for their ride. "What do you mean? What next for what?"

"I mean … I don't know. I haven't done any of this before."

"I'm not really an expert … I don't know. Whatever you want to come next, I guess." Will still wasn't totally sure what Nico was talking about.

"I just … you've actually dated people, at least."

"Nico, I had one boyfriend who turned out to be fake, so I'd rather not repeat that, and then another that I basically just dated so Lou Ellen would stop bugging me. It's not a great track record."

Nico didn't say anything, just shivered a little.

"Do you mean, like, if we're an official _thing_ now," Will tried, "or … what to tell people or … what?"

Nico sighed. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, you already know I like you and I don't really care if other people know I like you, but what would being a … thing … mean?"

"It would mean whatever we want. I don't think there would be any big changes or something. What do you want to happen?"

"I don't know. To do stuff like this more … I mean, not freeze to death on a fire escape, but like, do things with just you. And cuddle or something."

Will smiled. "That sounds good. We can do that."

"Cool. Um, and we could hold hands or something at campfires?"

"You're actually a helpless romantic, aren't you? I knew it."

Nico shoved at him a little but didn't pull away. "Shut up. I'm not." But Will could hear the smile in his voice.

"Can I … kiss you, sometimes?" Will asked hesitantly. "It's ok if you don't want to, or don't want to in front of other people or something… just, since we're talking about stuff, you're sort of hard to read, so..." Will had found himself thinking about their very chaste kiss every time he had seen Nico since getting back from Thanksgiving. And every time he zoned out in class, and whenever he was supposed to be doing paperwork in the infirmary, and…

Nico's silence lasted a little too long. Will started to panic - had Nico not liked it? He thought he had smiled a bit after but maybe that was wishful thinking? "Nico?"

"Um, yeah, ok."

"You don't sound like you want to … it's ok, really." But Will felt sort of crushed.

"No, I do want to. I'm just…" Nico paused for so long that Will almost thought he wasn't going to say anything else. "What if I'm terrible at it?" Nico said this so quietly Will could barely hear it.

He wanted to laugh with relief but caught himself. "You won't be." He could feel Nico take a breath to protest and quickly added, "and if you are I'll definitely tell you and let you practice as much as you want."

Nico balled up even more. "Please forget I said that out loud. Where is Jules-Albert? I might die of embarrassment before he finds us."

As if on cue, a large black SUV pulled up below them and flashed its lights. If Will looked closely he could just barely make out a face through the tinted glass that could either be a very sick human or a very animated zombie. They stood and climbed down the fire escape. Will was relieved to feel the warmth of the car and took off his damp coat as soon as Nico closed the door behind them.


	24. Chapter 24

December 2

 **Nico**

Nico and Will were silent while Jules-Albert drove, but Nico had reached over and taken Will's hand once the car started moving. The sleet and rain turned to snow as they left the city and Nico gradually stopped shivering. He stared out the window and tried to think of ways to make up for such a pathetic date. He had spent the whole Friday before Thanksgiving walking around and shadow traveling through New York trying to find a restaurant that wasn't _too_ fancy but still nice and wasn't _too_ busy but still provided enough background activity to eliminate awkward silences. But it didn't matter now, because he'd somehow forgotten how to shadow travel properly in the last week, and Will had almost fallen off of a fire escape, and they'd both almost frozen to death. Also he'd had a moment of insanity and told Will he was afraid he'd be bad at kissing. Really, if they never made it back to camp and a monster decided to eat them right now Nico would be ok with it. But the warmth of Will's hand kept him from spiraling too much, and reminded him that Will didn't seem too annoyed or frostbitten. In fact, when Nico glanced over at him, he had a faint smile on his face. Maybe the night was salvageable. Suddenly, he heard Will's stomach growl.

Nico stared at him. "I completely forgot about food, I'm so sorry." Seriously. Will might not actually _survive_ a second date if it was anything like this one. "Hey, Jules-Albert, can we stop soon and get something to eat?"

"It's fine, I'm only just now thawed out enough to even feel my stomach." Will smiled, but Nico just felt worse. How was he so nice?

A sign with two huge, golden arches appeared over the next hill. "Ooh - Jules-Albert, stop here!"

"Nico, McDonalds?"

"Have you _had_ fries dipped in one of their shakes?"

"No, I haven't actually eaten here before. It isn't known to offer food that's good for you. How have you not collapsed from malnutrition yet?" Will was smiling and his hair was still damp from the rain and almost looked like real gold in the streetlights and Nico almost forgot to respond.

"I'm serious, just try it."

"You were going to take me to a fancy New York restaurant and instead we're going to eat here?" But Will was laughing and Nico just grinned and rolled his eyes as Jules-Albert pulled up to the drive-through speaker.

Nico ordered practically everything on the menu, and when Jules-Albert passed the two huge bags back to them, Will looked at him apprehensively. They continued driving through Long Island while Nico made Will try different burgers, sides, desserts and fry-shake combinations.

When they arrived at camp and climbed out of the SUV, Will had conceded that regular fries with a little extra salt dipped in a chocolate shake were actually pretty good. They crossed over the hill and Will tugged at Nico's hand. Nico looked up and they both stopped - Chiron was standing on the porch of the Big House glaring at them. Shit.

"So nice of you two to return to camp," Chiron said as they reached the house. "Funny, I must have forgotten you had planned on an excursion." He opened the door and they followed him inside.

"Chiron, it wasn't Will's fault, I took us to New York and we were supposed to be back already but -"

"Let me guess, you were having trouble with your shadow traveling?" Chiron stood behind a desk piled with papers

"Um, yeah." _How did he know?_

"Well I suppose I should just be glad you made it back without incident. Though I do recall you promising to let me know if you were leaving."

"I know … I just, forgot. I guess." After Nico had left in the fall, part of their deal was that if he came back he'd at least tell Chiron before disappearing again, even if it was just for a night to visit Hazel or Jason. Nico did his best to look appropriately contrite, and just hoped that Chiron wouldn't punish Will too. _Great job, Nico. Way to set the bar really high for what being in a relationship with you is like._

"Yes. Apparently. Well, you might appreciate hearing that you aren't the only one who has had difficulty in the past few days." Nico's eyes shot back up to Chiron, confused. "A couple satyrs have reported some issues getting here, and the trouble we were having with Iris messages seems to have gotten worse. Until we find out why, please avoid any more shadow traveling."

Nico just nodded. That was a relief, sort of. But also troubling … what could even have that sort of effect? Nico just hoped that nobody he knew got roped into some stupid quest to figure it out. Because then _Nico_ would probably get roped into helping them.

"Very well. You two may go, but consider this a warning. Do something like this again and I'll assign you very unpleasant chores in the stables."

They both turned to leave before he changed his mind, but as they reached the door Chiron said, "Will, actually, one more thing - have you or your siblings heard from your father recently?"

They both turned and Nico looked at Will, who seemed surprised by the question. "Um, not that I know of… he's been pretty quiet."

"No dreams?" Will just shook his head. _Great. If this is something about Will's dad … maybe a quest with Will wouldn't be so bad though. But still, hopefully Apollo is just sitting around on his island again, wrapped up in Leo's whatever-it's-called_. "Rachel Dare hasn't heard anything either. Let me know if he does turn up, I have a few things I'd like to talk to him about."

"Yeah, absolutely."

Chiron just nodded and started shuffling through papers on his desk. They took that as their cue to leave.

"Oops," said Nico once they were outside.

Will just looked over and grinned at him. "I think Chiron has a soft spot for you. Lucky."

"Whatever." Nico tried not to smile. Maybe Chiron went easy on him, but Nico thought that was more because out of all of the kids there, he was the most likely to take off and the centaur didn't want to lose one of the kids of the Big Three. They stood on the porch and watched the snow fall. "So… movie?"

"Absolutely."

They stopped at the Apollo cabin first so Will could change out of his sort-of-damp nice clothes. Nico waited by the door while Will grabbed a dry shirt and jeans and changed in the bathroom. Kayla and Austin were sitting on their beds, working on a ukulele duet. Nico looked around the cabin, trying not to make eye contact with Will's sister, who kept glancing over at him and smiling knowingly.

When Will came out, wearing his classic jeans and t-shirt combo, Kayla put down her ukulele and grinned at Will. "So… nice dinner?"

"Yep," Will said lightly.

"Whatcha doin' now?" Kayla's voice had a lilt to it. Will glared at her. Nico cringed internally at the innuendo behind her question.

"Nothing."

"Oh?" She looked at Nico and smiled even bigger. He considered melting into the shadow next to him, but if Chiron was right he'd probably end up at Zeus's Fist at best.

" _Bye_ Kayla. See you, Austin." Will tugged his sweatshirt on and pulled Nico out the door.

He heard Kayla yell, "We won't wait up! Be safe!" followed by her faint giggle as they crossed toward the Hades Cabin. Nico was glad it was dark, because he was probably bright red.

They entered Nico's cabin and he grabbed his own set of dry, warm clothes. "Um, I'll change and you can pick out a movie. Also, feel free to turn Hazel's bed into a couch thing again, use whatever."

Nico disappeared into the bathroom and took a few deep breaths. Kayla's unspoken suggestions had reminded him that they were, in fact, alone in his cabin and it would be dark and they had literally just had a conversation about kissing. Nico tried not to overthink it. Maybe they'd just fall asleep again and nothing would happen and that was fine. But just in case, he took a swig of mouthwash before he changed into jeans of his own. Nico took one last deep breath, telling himself that it was just Will and nothing was different and don't be weird, and pulled on a dry shirt as he stepped out of the bathroom.

Will had made Hazel's bed into a couch and was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. Nico couldn't bring himself to make eye contact, worried that his blush would return and Will would know what he had been thinking about.

"Couch is ready, but I don't care what we watch," Will said, sitting down.

"Um... I'm nearly caught up with _Walking Dead_ if you don't mind repeating some of it?"

Will just smiled and nodded. Zombies weren't exactly romantic, which would hopefully help distract him from any embarrassing thoughts.

Nico started the episode he had been on and turned off the main light. He also grabbed his damp clothes from the bathroom floor and tossed them at the end of his bed. He sat down on the 'couch' next to Will and they grinned awkwardly at each other before turning their attention to someone being eaten on screen.

Nico had started to relax, glad that the quick pace of the show kept him from dwelling on anything at all, when Will jumped at a zombie who appeared in what seemed like a deserted house. Nico couldn't help but laugh quietly at him - really, the suspenseful background music had made it clear enough that something was in the house, and Will had definitely seen his episode before anyway. Will glanced over and shoved his shoulder, grinning. Nico elbowed Will back in retaliation and Will poked him in the ribs. Nico let out a bark of a laugh and Will stared at him.

"The Ghost King is ticklish?"

Nico's eyes were wide as he shook his head and he grabbed Will's wrists when he moved to poke him again. "No, absolutely not."

"Because you _seem_ ticklish." Will was smiling mischievously and trying to twist his wrists out of Nico's grip.

"I have no idea what you mean." Nico was trying not to look very nonchalant while also bracing himself for an attack. Will's grin grew bigger. They had forgotten about whatever was happening on tv. Suddenly, Nico realized how close Will was. He blushed and felt the mood shift.

They stared at each other for what felt like forever, and Nico vaguely registered groaning zombie noises in the background. He felt frozen. He so badly wanted to close the distance between them but was still unsure. He also couldn't bring himself to back away.

Nico swallowed and looked at Will's mouth. He heard Will's breath catch in his throat and he slowly leaned in. Will kept perfectly still, and Nico had a fleeting thought that he was very thankful for mouthwash. Nico paused, mere centimeters from Will, and they locked eyes. He tried to make himself move that last, tiny distance. Before he could get his body to move, Will leaned in and met Nico in a gentle kiss. Just as Nico began to feel like he was melting from the closeness and sweetness and warmth, Will pulled back, seeming to search Nico's eyes for confirmation. Nico reacted before he could over think anything and leaned back into Will's lips, pressing hard into a kiss that would've made Hazel fan her face. He realized he was still holding Will's wrists and let go. One of Will's hands immediately went into Nico's hair, the other lightly holding his neck and jaw. Nico's hands traced the muscles of Will's shoulders and arms. Nico had a stray thought that if Jason found out they had their first makeout session to the sound of zombies in the background he'd never hear the end of it. That was one of the last coherent thoughts he had though, and neither of them even noticed when the next episode started playing.

* * *

 _Ok guys, I'm ending this story here! I have a ton of solangelo one-offs in the works that fill the time between now and when Apollo shows up, and I'll keep adding them pretty regularly because Nico and Will are constantly adorable, but I thought it would be best to post them as part of a series rather than chapters, since they'll be able to stand on their own now that these two are more or less on the same page finally._

 _Thanks so much to everyone who commented and favorited as the story was going up! It definitely helped me keep my momentum going!_


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